NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Teams that won't return to the playoffs in 2017

Episode Date: June 26, 2017

A room filled with some heroes – Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, & Gregg Rosenthal – recap all the latest news from around the NFL including the Saints placing Nick Fairley on the NFI list and Cam Newton throwing for the first time since his surgery. The heroes then debate which 2016 playoff teams are most likely to miss out next season.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. Mostly believes in aliens. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Well, some heroes. Chris Wessling to my left and Greg Rosethal to my right. What's up, boys?

Hey, Dan. Wes, if... If you just, you know, get out of the way for a second, I want to talk about this cold that I'm dealing with. Because, yeah, we're facing challenges here in the studio, Wes, your brave battle against the big sea. But this summer cold. I mean, don't underestimate little C. You know, when you get hit with a summer cold, let alone one that comes right before you leave for vacation, which I'm doing tomorrow. Oh.

You don't talk about something that makes you rethink, like, your priorities where you are in life? I'm in that spot right now. I think whenever you have a chance to reevaluate your priorities because you have the sniffles, you have to do it. I mean, who gets a cold? It's summer. Yeah. And then you get banged with a cold? No, it's tough.

I know, West, you've kind of, you know, you've been in and out battling, you know, having your battle. But, uh... I told you this isn't, you know, about West so much. Right. But what I was going to say was, you know, Dan was at that party at the work function on Thursday night. And who knows, I don't know if the sniffles are related or not, but it probably was a little bit of a drag on his weekend. So I was thinking about Dan quite a bit this weekend because of that. Wow.

Well, thanks. Thanks, Greg. I appreciate it. Yeah, we had a good time at the Commissioner's Awards. And it got a little turned out. And I'll tell you what. Sully, you opted not to attend? I think you would have had a good time.

I think I would have only added to that turned out aspect of the party. It might be a good thing I didn't show up. So, yeah, everybody out there who might be worried are like, oh, should we start a go fund me or whatever for Dan? No, I would say hold off on that for now. We'll see where I am as the week progresses. Again, I'll be on vacation after today. But I am basically annoyed that I have a cold.

And Wes, like you and me, we can talk about this stuff. I am on the same wayne-length because cancer is not what I thought it would be. It really is an annoyance. I thought it would be like the tumor is eating you away from the inside, you know. You feel fatigued after chemo. No, it's annoyance with not being able to eat. I would kill for a cheeseburger. Oh, yeah.

It's just an annoyance. You're saying cancer is a little less like gravitas than you thought it would? I'm saying that it's completely different than I thought it would be. Like the symptoms, the day-to-day frustrations are as much mental as physical. And in my case, with esophageal cancer, it's my complete inability to eat or drink basically anything right now. It's awful. We were saying before the show started, Wes has lost weight because you're not able to eat as much. But right now, it's not like, Greg, Wes doesn't look good.

It's actually like Wes kind of looks hot right now. Wes is odd. He looks tight and right. And so far, so good in terms of your frame. And, you know, I wish we could have a cheeseburger together, though, Wes. I was given the paramour. These sniffles haven't stopped Dan from wolfing down lunch at the huddle in about 35 seconds today. Listen, when you have a cold, you got to feed a cold.

He did a lot both of us, didn't he? Yeah, I did. You say that. I was giving the paramour a hard time because I can tell she is more attracted to me now with cancer than she was before cancer. And then, you know, I got a guilty laugh out of her for that. That's a problematic situation. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if I was you how I would feel about that.

Life's life. Take what you can get. Yeah. Although, you know, this has moved now away from my situation back to you. I will say that it is great, great to have you with us, Wes. Every time you in here, we love it. And now, today's show. Now, today's show.

it's it's solid it's a solid show I'm kind of into the show a little bit pre-show grade let's see Wes is here his weight loss has been a positive

on some level I'm not feeling well Greg's a little difficult in the pre-production meeting but then we came around B minus okay B minus

okay so today's show we're going to hit up some news in a little bit more unconventional way as we'll get to in a couple of minutes and then what we're going to do is we did this last summer and we want to revisit it because it's kind of fun is we'll look at the 12 teams that made the playoffs last year and then it's kind of like our confident scale on how confident we are that those

teams will return to the playoffs in 2017 after making the dance a season ago so we'll go through that and that included some math that we'll get to that I sat out and we put it in Greg's hands. So that's the plan for today before we get going. Formally, we'll say hello to Sully behind the glass. Hey, buddy. Fellas. How is it?

How is it? So you did not want to hang out with us at the... No, I did. At the... I definitely did. I was just feeling about... I would rather sit on my tuckus. And that's what you did, right?

I did. Thursday was your Friday, you told us. Yep. And what did you do? I watched the NBA draft with a couple of coworkers. and I just sat on my Tuckus. It was nice. So you were hanging out with coworkers

because you gave us the reasoning why you weren't going to the wards is why would I hang out with people I work with all day. But these co-workers live across the street for me, so it was literally like walk across the street, boom, watching the NBA draft. Okay, bye, day.

Let's do some news. Let's do it. Man, stuff like that never happens to me. Man, stuff like that never happens to anybody except for Marcus. Now, one of the things with, with Wes and the spidey's up against. The idea of let's, you know, have some fun together,

let's get together and maybe have some like Knights in at West Manor. And that was a sound clip from the 1992 Eddie Murphy vehicle, Boomerang, which, Wes, I know you and I have a lot of common ground on that film. We're both big fans. Hammer Time, baby. Yeah, I love Boomerang. It's one of my favorite movies in the 90s. Greg, this movie came out before you entered Earth.

No, we were, I watched Boomerang many times in high school, actually. You were? I was in on boom. I'm in on Boomerang. Okay, good. So we're going to have like a boomerang viewing party at some point. We were banging out the details with the Paramour at the commissioners event, a dinner. Now it's just a matter of getting our hands, procuring a copy of Boomerang, which might be more difficult than.

No, you could, I can order it from Amazon streaming or something for $2.99 or whatever. And if you're not aware of Boomerang, it was a, Eddie Murphy, playing the suave single dude on the Luce in New York who struggled to commit. Robin Givens, Interprime, Hallie Barry, before she was the leading lady, she had to play the supporting actress.

She played the support. And you know what? Love should have brought your ass home last night. Hallie Berry was at the point where she was playing a girl next door supporting part, which she obviously outgrews. I've never seen a girl next door to me looking like Hallie Barry.

That's fair. All right. Now, this is what we're going to do for the news. We're going to mix it up a little bit. We love Roto World, and not just because Greg built the entire enterprise brick by brick, not even just HTML. Of course, he built out the website, but I mean also the office in which they do business. None of this is true.

Not physically doing it, you were the brainchild for everything behind Roto World's rise. Yes or no? No. I would say Matthew Polia, who is the first blurber. He does, who still do, you know, baseball. He was the guy. I was the second full-time. I was first full-time on football,

but he was doing all the sports polio. I worked under polioet for a minute. I was doing baseball on Roto World for at least one summer. Baseball guy. Can you save for the Poliott? Yes, sorry. Anyway, the point was that both Greg and then later, Wes worked at Roto World in various capacities.

It's a great website. Listen, NFL.com is an excellent website as well, but a great place for all matters football at the NFL page on Roto World. So what we want to do is what I do often when I just check. check in what's going on. I see Roto World. Just go straight down the Roto World headlines. And they're not paying for this.

And perhaps they should. Sully, can we reach out to Roto World to see if retroactively they can pay us for what we're about to do? I'll try. Yeah, just like, not even 20 bucks. How about a pizza? We'll take a pizza. They can spring for Bumerang. Let's get Evan Silve on the line, see if he could buy Bumerang and then mail it to us.

He's big time. I saw his. He can definitely afford that. You could buy it for 796 on Walmart.com. We'll see if the shadowy league figures might be able to expense that one. Then you have to buy a DVD player because who owns a DVD player? See, we're bumping up against some stuff here. Let's start with the top of the Roto World headlines.

Michael Floyd sentenced to one day in jail that it comes after violating the terms of his house arrest. He was, of course, you know the story, that he was under house arrest, could not drink any alcohol, had the monitoring bracelet on, and then flunked a test reportedly or multiple tests and blamed it on kombucha, which we tried, which was pretty tasty, I've got to say. You tried it? Yeah, no, I really liked it.

On this podcast, we had some kombucha tea, and it was pretty... You hippies. Yeah, so they never had it before. Why not see what's going on? We can thank Michael Floyd for that. Open your mind, Wes. They got it on tap at the facility, don't they?

At the Vikings facility? And that's how he got in trouble. Oh, my goodness. Anyway, so Michael Floyd, who was signed by the Vikings, they have them in their plans, and there was a fear that Floyd was going to miss a big portion of the season. It might get thrown in the pokey. Is that what they call it?

For an extended amount of time because the judges... The Hooskow. Instead, it's just one day. So he's out of there. I don't know what this does for his... With the NFL, if this leads to more trouble, but that's what's going on one day in jail for Michael Floyd. Let the man have his kombucha.

I mean, the test, there are many ridiculous things about that, you know, excuse. But the biggest one was the test. we're taking at like 4.30 in the morning. That means he was just chugging kombucha overnight in that scenario. I think it could impact the NFL suspension of Michael Floyd, which the Vikings and everyone else, including Floyd, are still waiting to find out what it's going to be. So the fact that he did not stick to the terms of his house arrest

and it's still been a problem, I would think that's something the NFL will frown on. And potentially, I mean, this could be a long suspension. It might not be a short one. It could be, and it might also not hurt the Vikings very much at all, considering he's running behind Laquan Trevill as the third receiver. Moving on, in the Roto World headlines, they have... What? Is he not?

No, he is. Oh, okay. Sorry. Moving on, Nick Fairley has an issue here. And the Saints have placed Farrely on the reserve NFI list with that heart condition he's dealing with. He's expected to miss all of 2017, that according to the Times Picayune. This came after multiple consultations to try to nail down what he was dealing with, three different opinions, and now we're wondering if we've seen the last of Nick Fairley in the NFL.

We hope not, but how would you describe Greg Rosenthal, Nick Fairley's career to this point? That's a great question. I have to say he's had a good career. He has been better as a part-time player. that as a starter. But once teams like the Lions and the Saints figured that out, and the Rams, he was pretty valuable. I mean, he earned a four-year $28 million contract,

so his value to the Saints was pretty high. Here's what's counterintuitive about Nick Fairley. The Lions spent years trying to get him to lose weight, and then he goes to the Saints, is bigger than he ever was and has his best year. Right. But I think he was a good, like I think the Rams would say they were happy with what they got out of Nick Fairly, too.

He wasn't a guy who was going to be great. every snap, but a big guy who disrupts you in the middle of the line, that has significant value. And the contract says it, and it's another big loss for the Saints. Who has had a worse offseason than the Saints? No one is the answer. Who else did they? They lost their starting center, Max Unger.

Who knows if maybe he'll be back for early in the season. And they lost Toronto Armstead, their left tackle for four to six months. I mean, that's three key players who are getting paid a lot of. money with pretty serious injuries. Up next, this one coming out of Philadelphia, the Eagles wide receivers coach, Mike Groh says that Alshan Jeffries had the best off-season in years.

Tropolet. Troopalette. That according to ESPN.com believes that he's pleased where he is. Gross said he's pleased where Jeffrey is physically and mentally. He's in a good place. Grow worked for Jeffrey for three seasons in Chicago.

including that one big huge year he had in 2013 when he kind of broke out as a future star. But, you know, this is commonplace. That's why it's a tropeller, people. It is a troplor. I wouldn't put too much stock in it. But with Alshan Jeffrey, as much as any wide receiver in the game over the past half decade, his conditioning has been a problem. So I think if he's in shape, that's half the battle.

No, I mean, this headline, I think, was at the top when we first came up with this idea. Some actual news dropped in between. And this, you know, nonsense is kind of was the inspiration that there's so little going on. Let's just go through these Roto World things. I read a tweet from Joe Thomas, Brown's left tackle. Yes, yes. I'm aware who he is. He tweeted out today.

You have to feel sorry for NFL beatwriters who have to come up with these meaningless offseason articles. Ever heard of a, quote, bad offseason? And he was linking to a pro football talk article that was praising Jamal Adams for his unbelievable work. And it's true. I really, I know we say this every year, but I put it, I've never actually gone to an OTA before or a minicamp. And it really hammered at home that they're not playing football. So what? And everyone kind of knows this. And yet we, they still fall into the same thing. He's had a good off season or bad off season. What, it just means they're like in shape or not? Well, they're not even playing the sport really that they're going to be

playing. What were they playing? Like seven on seven? Yeah, there's seven. There's no, I mean, there's no tackling. There's no even touching. You can't, you can't, Yeah, there's seven, occasionally there's 11 on 11. Most of it's just individual work, you know, positional groups. So you can. In shorts, but it's all in charge. You can gain very little from any of this. As a reporter especially.

But I even think as coaches, okay, he's had his best offsy. I guess that just means he's in shape and he's kind of focused. He's healthy and in shape. That's all you can ask for. That's it. Next up, Cam Newton resumes throwing. It's not bad. That's not bad.

That's first time he's thrown since undergoing shoulder surgery on March 30th. you know this comes he was supposed to throw at the end of minicamp and that never happened and now here he is throwing a week or two later and there still is a belief that he will be ready to roll come training camp camp newton west uh does this mean anything to you no nothing i think throw Andrew luck in the same category it's our 24-7 football news world where this stuff appears to be meaningful and it really doesn't mean anything we'll find out what it means when training camp opens and when we see him in action against actual football players. But no, the fact that he's actually throwing, he probably could have thrown a couple weeks

ago, but everything has a timetable and you have to do it by that? No, I don't think it means much. Sully, the Panthers released a video. Yeah, they released a video and it was the most overproducing I've ever seen. It was just him throwing in the locker room. I did catch that. Dramatic music. And I'm like, are you serious?

I saw it in the corner of my eye and I was like, wait. They treated it like Teddy Bridgewater returning from one of the most deviant. devastating injuries, which the Vikings kind of blew out as a hype video, which I get. It's a little different. Plus, it was in the locker room where the ceilings are like 10 feet high. So it's not like you're really throwing. He threw to a trainer that was like 10 feet away from him. All right, moving on.

It needs a little something that he's ahead of Andrew Luck despite being too much. Well, Andrew Luck could probably throw at 9 feet in the locker room too. This is my entire point. He's not ahead of Andrew Luck, but because the Colts have told Andrew Luck, we don't want you throwing. He hasn't tested it. So my point is that he had surgery two months later and they've been confident the whole time that Newton will be ready for camp and that it's been throwing. So I think it's safe to say from the outside, he's on a little bit of a faster timeline and his surgery was likely not as invasive. My point would be that we know nothing and you're just using conjecture here.

The Colts have approached Lux Rehab differently and they don't want him to try throwing. So he could be way ahead of Newton and we just have no idea. This is why it's a June story. Next up, Miami. Jay, Ajai could push for 1,900 total yards with a question mark. This is coming from ESPN, James Walker, who believes Ajai could put up 1,900 total yards if he stays healthy. My only thought on this, and it's all obviously kind of ridiculous to really make that type of statement,

especially if you're going to say 1900, bro, just go up to 2K. Just saying you can approach 2,000 yards. 1900 is oddly specific. Right. And having the question mark at the end also makes it like, well, yes, he could run for any amount of yards. You could put 300 yards. You could put 2,500 yards. But a million.

Of total yards. He could not do a million yards. But he could. A million is not. No, he couldn't. Put Greg on the spot here. Oh, stop. If you were still running Roto World, would this be a headline?

That's what I didn't want this to be about. We love Roto World. I'll put myself on the spot. It's not a headline. It's just a beat writer throwing numbers out. Wes coming back with some heat. That's what I like I mean he's coming back

You miss a couple shows He figured Wes oh He's gonna come in calm No Wes is coming in With that 1900 yard And energy And you know what

It's not Just because Wes is in the fight of his life Right now Doesn't mean He's going to come in Like a sad time That's not what I mean Oh good point Greg

You did it again What's the next news element It's like no It's gonna be Wes Jay Ajai last year Started 12 games And he had 1400 yards From scrimmage

So just doing the math out, if he can stay healthy, he was basically at that pace last year. And I think this is not an overly optimistic projection. If I'm in fantasy drafts, I'm taking some J. Ajai. I'm thinking 2,000 yards from scrimmage. If he could run for 200 yards in three different games in every year of his career, he'd be the best running back of all time. Right. Their offensive line was really terrible, I think, last year.

And we'll see if it's better. On paper, maybe it should be better. I think he's that type of runner, and he's one of the few running backs left that if he's healthy, we know he's going to get the ball 300 times. Next up, Levyon Bell videoed. Videoed. Is that a word? Playing basketball.

Why is this notable? Because Levy on Bell had groin surgery back in March. Levy on Bell tweeted it out himself on Twitter, and then Roder World turned it into a blurb, and that's how the sausage gets made, baby. Does it matter? Well, here's how the sausage also gets made. The headline field, I think, only has a certain amount of characters. Couldn't fit in videotape, went with videoed.

I don't know. I mean, I guess, does this matter? When you built the HTML, though, why didn't you just build in a little more space to get in a headline that? The more character space, the more you could put into that headline. In a website like this, it lives and dies on the headlines. I mean, I feel like that's a basic structure error on your part. I think you need to put a limit. The headlines just go forever.

My headline would just go all the way across the... They would just go all the way across the page like 200-word headlines. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. But I didn't build Roe World brick by brick. See, I think there's a subtle but important distinction here between Leveon Bell and Cam Newton. Cam Newton isn't going to be throwing like soft 10-yard passes in games. Right. Levyon Bell is going to be making the same maneuvers in football that are used on a basketball court.

And when you can actually see the videotape and he's moving with some agility, that would tell me that a groin surgery worked and he's in football shape. He's fine. And I don't know if you watch this. Dan, you're saying to move it along. You got to watch this video. I mean, watch his crossover here. Labion Bell's nice.

I mean, he is making some moves. You got to wait a second here. Look like Mateen Clee. I mean, he's going between the legs, crossover, then going back and going with the left hand. It's pretty good. I mean, he's a good athlete. Looks like TD's Instagram videos against our defenders. He does, to your point, West, it does look like a kind of move he would be making running the ball.

That's pretty nice. And he's a big dude. You see him on the court. Looks a little big. His weight is fluctuated as a pro. He looks like he's back up a little bit. A little beefy. Maybe that should be the next road to roll.

Get him on my diet. Next up, let's hope not. Enough if he wants that. Never mind, Colin. Riddick refutes Chief's rumors. And what is this about? ESPN analyst Lewis Riddick has not... Excuse me.

What is this report? Updating an early report, ESPN analyst Lewis Riddick has not been contacted by the chiefs. The news comes from Riddick himself. The chiefs have not contacted me if there's no interview set up for this week. Source, me, he tweeted. Rhapsodyt reported that the chiefs were looking to interview Riddick for their GM job. But maybe that's not the case. I mean, if I'm on the Roto World News shift,

I'm paying particular attention to Lewis Riddick's phrasing, which includes this week. To me, that's key. He's not denying it outright. He's saying this week, I don't have an interview. And he said, if not contacted me, and I don't know. I'm always going to have, yeah, NFL network insider Ian Rapport's back.

These are all done through agents and intermediates. So I don't think that report from Ian comes out of nowhere. He gave Riddick a little bit of a LOL, whatever, on some, someone responded saying, like, what's up with this? And you never know. Maybe he hadn't, who knows? I don't want to get another man's business, but it's tricky when you have. one job and other people are searching you out for another job and maybe you, you know? All of these different reports, I think we can take LOL whatever and say that's La Raville Magnifico.

If Ian is approaching it that way, he knows there's something going on. And he said they're working to set up an interview, not necessarily. Moving on. Paxton Lynch gaining ground on Trevor Simeon. That according to Mike Cleese at 9 News, Denver, Lynch, quote, made his move on Simeon. during the final two weeks of OTAs West. Trevor Simeon did pretty well last year. But Lynch is going to be a guy to watch here.

He's a first-round pick. First-round picks don't sit on the bench for two years. It's an interesting scenario, and Broncos fans have been cracking me up on Twitter lately because they are rooting so hard for Paxton Lynch, so hard that they are seeing his 2016 game film through some pretty perverse eyes. He had a brutal two starts for the Broncos.

They're getting perverted? The distance between Trevor Simeon and Paxton Lynch last year is measured in miles. Paxton Lynch was so overwhelmed in who's... Light years, even. Light years. And Mike Cliss, who wrote this article, said without that last week of mini camps and OTAs, Simeon would have ran away with this job. So in that sense, it's important?

But wasn't it Vance Joseph, who was the head coach, when asked what he's taking away from OTS, said nothing. Absolutely nothing. He said nothing. Right, so I give him a chance. I mean, I give Lentz a chance, but let's see it in camp. I agree. I think it says two things.

One, that he's comfortable with Mike McCoy's offense, that it probably took a few practices. And two, that he's comfortable being an NFL player. You know, guys who come from spread systems in college don't even know how to run a huddle. So he's just now getting to do everything now is getting to be more natural instead of thinking about it every time he's doing something. By the way, who gets to this side who starts in Denver? Is it Vance Joseph or is it John Lowe? Or is it Mike McCoy? I just feel like that's Elway's boy, that lynch move,

that if he's going to put some pressure on the people below him, I can see it happen. It's a great question. I think the honest answer would probably be it's collaborative. You want it to be. Those two guys are discussing it, but Elway's voice matters. That's the thing in football, there's only 16 games.

You can't really afford to be playing a guy just because you drafted him higher. You have to play to win. Moving on, Adam Gase, message Peyton. Manning about a return. Now this one's a little interesting. It came from the Miami Herald. This came right after Tannahill partially toward, Ryan Tannhill partially towards ACL in week 14. The text said, hey 18, Tannahill went down. I think he's going to miss some time. The first question I'm going to get at the press conference in the morning is if I'm going to tell, if I'm going to bring you to Miami, what do you want me to tell them? My question,

first of all, is that serious? Second of all, is that really the first question that any reporters are going to ask? I'm curious. No. Shouldn't the reporter ask that? Peyton Manning was done. He was washed up. I mean, Tate Manning was struggling and not looking to play football.

I don't think that was on anyone's mind last December, really. Do you remember it ever coming up at the time that it happened? It feels like it came up at least once a month that people are wondering if Peyton Manning was going to come back. I think any reporter who knows Gace's relationship with Manning would have to ask that. It seems like, well, it seems like Gace was. Now, this came from Archie Manning, who was talking to the Times Picayune at the Manning Passing Academy down in Louisiana. And Archie always loves, like, kind of putting these things out there, I feel like. I feel like Gase was probably just testing the water, seeing what old Sheriff wanted to say.

Would there have been any more depressing sight than a 40-year-old Peyton Manning throwing wobbling ducks in early January for an overmatch Miami team in the playoffs? it would have been a horrible way for him to go out. He went out as a Super Bowl champion. That would have been so sad if he went out with the Dolphins team learning a playbook on the fly, his body unable to make the throws that he makes the throw. This all worked out. Imagine if he took that hit that Matt Moore took. Was it from James Harrison?

I don't remember who laid him out. Matt Moore took a beating in that Steelers game. Out of all of the headlines, I think this is the biggest non-story. What do you want me to tell them? to me is just straight up, what do you want me to tell them? I don't think there's more to the short. I think he's just joking around with his buddy. It's his friend.

He's like, they're going to ask me this. So what do you want me to say when they ask me this? Jay Gruden gushes about third year wide receiver, Jameson Crowder. This is according to the Washington Post. He's an excellent dynamic player, continues to prove every day why we love him so much. This could be seen, obviously, is another trope alert. Do we believe James and Crowder is the real deal? I think this is a story because.

I don't know if this is the same article, but last week also came news that he's going to be playing in two wide sets. So, like, especially for a fantasy football news site, James and Crowder should be getting upwards of 900 to 1,000 snaps instead of playing third receiver snaps. I think that is big news. Yeah, Terrell Pryor is going to get a lot of attention. Josh Dotson, people are curious about. But Crowder is the more likely to guide him and Reed are still going to be the guys you think of as one-two there, the guys that have been there. I'm so sick

I hate it here Are you okay No I'm not okay This is the thing that I'm up against And I'm dealing with it I'm not happy I'm gonna be on a plane With my two and a half year old son tomorrow

For five and a half hours Is that something that I'm excited? Could you knock this out By then? Drink some fluids, get some sleep I'm trying I got nine hours of sleep yesterday And you know, woke up sicker I have an offer for you

Just because you're such a good friend I have you would not believe my medicine cabinet these. Oh, you can take me through it. Yeah, you can have your first choice of whatever pill you want in my medicine. Is this legal what we're talking about right now? Is this street legal? I think it's okay.

Between friends, you can. Are they prescribed to you? Yes. Can I take someone else's prescribed medicine? I'll do it. I'm not selling them to you. I'm just giving you one. It's like a magic pill for your airplane ride.

Okay. We have a shadowy league figure in the back today looking to scant at us. You might need help sleeping on that flight. All I'm saying is I've got some powerful, powerful medicine. Oh, Wes, you show even though you're my elder, you show a lack of awareness about being a father still. Yeah. I would love to sleep on that point. Hey, Emily.

Hey, Emily. I'm going to go knock out. No, it's just me and Jack. Oh, really? Emily's following of Harrison. It's just me and the boy. See, I thought Emily would be there. And I was going to say, you're not asking permission.

You're just popping the pill. and then consequences be what may. Emily, that is funny. Emily and Harry are following a few days later, but it's just Jack and I could do that and just tell the flight attendant, hey, you're watching him. Like, that's never been done before. He's only partially potty trained.

That was like every other flight in the 60s. He's only partially potty trained, and it's a total, it's the Wild Wild West with number two right now. And then I just pass out for six hours. My medicine cabinet is off limits to you. finally in the rhodo world headlines is does it matter or not new jersey advanced media is connor hughes not or expects matt forte to be the jets offensive workhorse this season you know this is like it's a fantasy site at its heart do not draft any jets don't do it because even mat fortay who proved last year best used in uh small portions at this state of his career he uh once he started using him to much. He went down the drain. Blal Powell might be a better player at this stage.

So in terms of the handcuff situation, maybe, but you don't want to get involved with the Jets this year. I do not trust Connor Hughes anymore after this. Shots fired. What do you talk about an offensive workhorse who's 31 years old and looked like the slowest running back in the NFLish? Well, he might be on a historically bad Jets team. So if there was any type of team that would have a 31-year-old horse running back, maybe it's Right, but this is the same coaching staff that talked about Bilal Powell said he could be a pro bowler.

Philly's a good player. Philly pal. In fairness, Hughes is in a tough spot. I mean, that's essentially the company's changed, but Connor O're essentially the same company. He was at the Newark Star Ledger.

You follow a legend like Connor or at your company. It'd be like if Peyton Smith was the next quarterback of the Broncos. That's not even a good example, you know, because he wasn't that good. I'm just saying, you don't want to have the same name as the legend.

If Derek Beater, you know, replaced old number two at shortstop. Derek Beater. This is how it breaks down. You want to be the guy. You want to be the guy, okay? And then if you're not the guy, you never want to be the guy who replaces the guy. You want to be the guy who replaces the guy who replaces the guy. That's what you want to do.

And what we were talking about? Oh, so, you know, Connor Beckersley, when he comes. comes in and he's replacing Hughes. He's in a better spot. But Hughes replacing ore, tough spot. I'm waiting for Connor Beater. Connor Beater. That's what's happening in the Roderworld news.

All right. You want to hear about more stuff? That was fine. We should just, we'll just use the road world from now on to save him from planning the show out. Let's talk about this first, though. Let's talk about underpants. Elevate your underwear game to the next level with Mi Undy.

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Maybe we are. Maybe there's such a juggernaut now that didn't even, but we have a lot of people. I got pandemoniums on right now. Oh, yeah. Nice pair. Got the pizzas. The pizzas are the best. You got the pizzas?

Got the pizzas. Pizas are good. Pizza pie. So maybe we'll find out at some point whether we, you know, we made some progress. Got to get in that Biondi's trust tree. It's where you want to be in life. All right. Now, fun exercise.

It's one of those things. It's one of those things. Every year, teams that made the playoffs the prior season, they don't return. So anybody that wants to get conservative with their predictions for the 2017 season, you bang. You're banging yourself in a big spot because every year, multiple teams fall out. Greg, in fact, put you on the spot a little bit here. How many teams fell out in the playoffs this past season that were in in 2015?

I'm going to sneeze. Hang out. I could go. I hate myself, I want to die. I could go through and count them, but that wouldn't be a very good podcast. I'm going to guess five. Oh, okay. Is this a game?

Maybe. Sully, can you work on this while we do the segment? I got you. Which teams, how many teams did not return? Maybe name the teams as well. Anyway, it's going to be probably if I had a guess. Three or four, three to five. It used to be about six a year, and then I feel like the last few years there's been a little less.

Yeah, the parody issue, and it's made, there's some top heavy teams. Anyway, so 12 teams make it six in each conference, nailed it. And so what we did was Wes, Greg, and myself, each. Six. Six. Six to make it. There you go. We called a confidence scale.

We took each team. and the team that we were most confident about would get one point and the team we were least confident about would get 12 points and then we added it up. Did we divide it, Greg, or we just went with the total sum? We didn't do a divider.

It's okay. It's fine. I put you in charge of the map element because I can't do this. There would be no point in dividing it. I mean, we have the numbers. What do you mean? So it's 35. The numbers don't really matter that much.

I mean, we're sorting it out, and there you go. You got your order. I got the order right here. I'm looking right at it right now. See, I got a little bit of lost in the wilderness there with the numbers. It happens on the show. So here we go.

Let's go through the teams. So if six didn't make it last year, let's just work off that. There's a good chance that either like half of the teams, it could be more than half of the teams, but don't expect it to be anything less than, let's say, three or four. So a lot of teams aren't coming back. I might have messed up.

Oh, no. Did you blow it? One of these teams is going to suffer a debilitating, No, I was good. Oh, you're good. I wish I didn't say anything. Yeah. That's okay.

Don't worry about it. Just double checking my math, you know. Well, we'll start at the top because there's no reason to pretend like this isn't going to be the choice. I'm just happy that Greg didn't elude himself into thinking that some of the team would be ahead. All three of us put number one for a total of three. Let's take a trip to the throne of ease real quick here. Just like we were just talking about on the AFC hierarchy update, Patriots we had in their own tier, although we were arguing with Greg a little bit,

who thought that the Steelers should be right next to them. The Pats, universally, most likely, what would it take, I think Greg, Wes, you just said it basically, what would it take for the Patriots to miss the playoffs? Even if Brady gets injured, the roster is strong enough and Jimmy Garoppolo is good enough for them still to make the playoffs. So what would it take? They would still be the heavy favorites in the east if Brady...

I mean, it is crazy that if not for three, you know, an 11 and 5 record not being good enough in the Matt Castle year, that they would have made the playoffs every year since 2002. That's wild. And even then, they tied for first that year, too. But it is absolutely insane. Here's what it would take. And this is within the realm of possibility.

We've seen this happen to teams before. It would take an injury to Brady and Garoplo. Yeah, which is. And probably Gronk, you know, which that happens almost every year. No, I think it's fair to see. Are they a playoff team with Jake Briscuit? 13, you know. They still have Belichick.

Yeah, he still have Belichick, and he's proven. Matt Castle is Matt Castle, and they won 11 games that year. They went one-in-one with Brisket last year. You know what? They might still make it. Ooh, Slides me off a baseball. That would be, I don't take anything away from Belichick because he helped to develop Brady. But if they ever went on a deep playoff run with a Jake Brisket at the controls,

why even do the league anymore? We've seen it at its highest level, coach at the highest level. Why have head coaches anymore? Well, they have Belichick. they also have a guy who, if he's not the best schemer and play caller, Dante Scarnacia. I was going to say Josh McDaniels. I mean, Kyle Shanahan is great, but Josh McDaniels is right there with him.

Dante Scarnacia is a Starnecki or Echia? Scarnia. He gets it. He has a pretty good because not only is he an offensive line coach, do you know any other offensive line coaches in the league? Tom Cable. A lot? All right.

Do you know that, like, did anyone get more credit than Dante Scarnacia for fixing everything wrong with the Patriots? So they also have the greatest offensive line coach of all time. What is this? Greatest quarterback, greatest head coach, greatest offensive line coach. That's a tri-th. And he gets overlooked, the continuity. Brady's always been in essentially the same system since day one.

So it was a big drop-off for our group at number two. But we all, looks like we all had them in good position here. The Steelers are the second least likely team, a total of eight. And I want to see what I. sent to Gregors. Greg, can you, I thought you were going to send me this. You lied to me. Blame it on Greg.

What are you talking about? I said you the thing. I had them at three. And that means someone else. Don't blame me. Someone else had them at three and then one of us had them at two. Yeah. You've got it all.

You've got it all. I do have it all. Good. So the Steelers, second least likely. And at West, that makes sense, right? I had them at three. I had the Seahawks is more likely,

but I think you could make, certainly make the argument. the Steelers are more than the Steelers have missed the playoffs a decent amount in the Mike Tomlin era so they are a little bit more of an up and down team I guess they haven't since 2013 but they did miss it two years in a row at one point and they missed it three times under Tom but we we spent a long time so I won't repeat myself but I think they're the second best team in the NFL I think they're they're in the same ballpark of the Patriots and one thing if we talk about what could stop them yes again it's probably injuries but Landry Jones playing

quarterback? Exactly. There's a big difference between the Patriots, and maybe it explains a lot why the Patriots who see their window wide open right now would not trade Gropold because they know they have coverage, whereas the Steelers know their season's over. If Rathlisberger gets hurt, let's face it. Rathlisberger gets hurt a lot.

He hasn't had too many serious injuries, but now you're getting into that part of his career where stuff can happen. Josh Dobbs is going to win that backup spot. Calling it out. And not a bad division. You at least have some teams in that division. pipe down with the Josh Dobbs. The ball head weighs in.

Go balls. Josh. All right. So number three, let's move on. So we're comfortable with the Steelers. The Packers come in at number three, just a total of nine. So I had them at two myself because I also looked at the division. That's why I had them number two.

And I'm not really as high on the Vikings as maybe some other people are this year. The Bears, I think we all know what's going on at the Bears. They stink. and the Lions. I think the Lions will come down to Earth as they did by the end of the season. So I think the Packers, by default, are in a very good position to win that division going away this year. Very confident in the Packers getting back yet again. Again, I'm more confident in the Seahawks because of division.

I actually like the Vikings a lot this year. And I think the West is the Seahawks to win. It's always the Seahawks to win now. Yeah, I hear you. The thing is they have made the playoffs. It's almost underrated. straight years. They did make on an 8-7 and 1. Yeah, fine, but that speaks to you talking about it being a bad division. I mean, they've made it seven straight years, and they made the division

around six of those years. So I don't see any reason why this isn't a, even among those Packers teams on paper, I think this is a good Packers team, that they should have reason to feel a little bit better about their defense. They're pretty deep on offense, that they're right there kind of with the Steelers as two teams. I would be really stunned if they somehow blew it. Okay, so those three, the only three teams in single digits when you added up our three little confidence rankings. So then number four, the Seahawks with 12 total points. And Wes, you said you had them at two. Why don't you dig in a little bit more why you thought they're almost basically a stone called Locke?

They are every year. I mean, what's changed? I don't, why would we doubt the Seahawks for a minute? I guess you can make the case that the Seahawks is, you know, maybe on the defensive side of the ball, whether it be injuries or whatever else, don't have the same allure as they once did. And maybe that window of them being a ultimate, like a real favorite in the NFC has closed now. And I feel like they've come back to the pack just a little bit.

I guess. I feel like their defense has been together so long that it's an obvious competitive advantage. and I don't think the Cardinals roster is any better than last year. In fact, I think the Cardinals roster is worse than last years, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Yeah, I had them fifth, but it's only because, you know, there's such good teams, I think, ahead of them, including the, you know, I put the Falcons and Packers, you know,

a little bit safer. The one concern, you know, they weren't a great offensive team last year. That was, you know, there was a lot of focus on the defense, but it really was the fact that they weren't good passing the ball, very up and down. Late in the season, Russell Wilson had some rough games. You know, they were just, I like the Cardinals this year. I've been saying that.

And so that's why I had them a little bit lower. But it still would be surprising. The only way the Seahawks get in a lot of troubles is that they go through one of those funks where they end up being a round 10-win team. And the Cardinals bounce all the way back, which happens if Carson Palmer plays like he did in the later portion of the season and if, you know, Honey Badger gets back to being Honey Badger and David Johnson continues to be a dominating force, it's not impossible. But, all right, we had him at, I had him at five.

at five west at two next up number five on our list combined list the Atlanta Falcons interesting another team this team stronger roster than last year I had them down I think I might have had them at fifth on my pool because the NFC South might be the strongest division in the NFL who I mean that's a lot of I care in that that's a lot of competition and you could see if the Falcons suffer an injury even for just a month it would allow maybe the Panthers or the bucks to sell past them. My instinct is always, you know, a team has a great year out of nowhere. Then I think naturally I just kind of pick them to fall back to the middle of the pack.

But I'm fighting against that with this Falcons team because they're loaded. I just think they're loaded. I think their defense is going to be so much better. They have so much room to improve that I'm in on the Falcons as, you know, they were fourth on my list and I'm in on them really as the co-NFC favorites with the Packers. I just don't think they, I don't, I know Kyle Shanahan's gone, but I don't think they can blow it. I had them at seventh on my list for the Kyle Shanahan, but I do put a lot into the Super Bowl hangover thing with teams. And there was never a worst, never a worse tequila night out than Super Bowl 51.

And I think these guys, they've been talking about it all season, how a lot of them are like, oh, we'll never get over that game. I think they might lose a little bit of, you know, swagger is, it's a cheesy way to look at it. but I feel like that loss will stick with them. And I don't think they'll be as good offensively this year. If the defense is a lot better, then everything is going to be better. Nice young group. I mean,

maybe your experience recently with a hangover, though, is impacting your judgment. Your thoughts about that. Well, I can relate. That's what I'm saying. That's fair. I get one or two hangovers a year at this stage of the game, and I did have one on Friday.

Luckily, it was a day off for me. So I was able to rest up and recharge the old batteries. but it was a tough Friday it's not how you want to spend your Friday hungover at this point what are I hang over what are we doing here

what are we doing here drinking to the point we're going to hang over you're a grown ass man yeah there's no more of that all right moving on number six maybe that's why I'm sick

maybe it was my body saying hey d-a- you are a 37-year-old father of two when the woman sticks the shot of tequila in your face what you should say to her is no ma'am no no crazy dray I am not going to take that

I smell you later all right moving on let's see where your body's like I'm used to softball you running around the bases on Thursday night what's up with this exactly number six we have the Raiders it's kind of interesting here well Sally we don't ding the Raiders until we really talk about them

Say something nice about them. You have to say something nice. Yeah, well, I mean, we have them at six. It's kind of nice. Is it, though? Is that nice? It's not not nice. It's not not nice.

I have noticed this. They're in arguably the toughest division. It's a trend, Sally. I've noticed the last couple shows that I'm not sure you understand what the ding is for. No, it's for nice things. I've noticed that, too, though. At one point, we were just like, and then the third team in the AFC West, the Raiders. It's like, ding.

We're like, no. We mentioned it. We mentioned them for new listeners, by the way. For new listeners and Sully, the ding is part of a Derek Carr initiative when he came on to the show, came on to the podcast, part of the deal for Greg and I to be unblocked by Derek Carr, the Raiders quarterback, and the highest paid man in the NFL now. So you have to say something nice about the Raiders every show. I thought it would just say anything about the Raiders, but that's where the disconnect is. I'm glad we've worked it out. We worked this out.

Okay. Good. All right, here we go. I mean, it's a lesson to anyone out there wants to come on our show and get the around the NFL bump. Unblock us. Yeah. Get the bump. You're going to be paid.

That's true. Absolutely. I mean, connect the dots, everybody. The Raiders, we had a total of 17 points. And I, uh, tell you what, that's okay. Why are, is it only because of, as Sully said, the AFC West, why they shouldn't be higher because I think, if anything, the Raiders with their quarterback healthy again and all the people. pieces coming together, should be higher on this list. I had them at four myself.

Wes, your thoughts. I do think they are a stronger team than some of the ones ranked. I think the Raiders are a stronger team than the Packers, but they're in a tougher division. And I do think they should be clear favorites in that division. I think the Raiders are a stronger team now than they were in late December and early January. Interesting.

I think that's fair. I like the Chargers, the Chiefs and the Broncos are going to be a lot to deal with, but I think it's fair to say that they're the most talented and should be the favorites. and they're just in an AFC where we have two teams in the Pats and the Steelers that we think are stone cold locks. We're not really hurting the Raiders. By this math, we're six teams out, six teams in, they're back in. Okay, that's a good point.

That's a good point. They're back in. Now, yeah, if you want to break it down this way, according to the way we did this, these next six teams are the most likely teams to get booted. But I will add a caveat here. We have the Cowboys here at number seven in a 19 total score. adding up our three confidence ratings.

There's quite a drop-off after the Cowboys. So I think all of us feel that the Cowboys, while things can go wrong, and I've said it many times on the show and on network, that I think a lot of things, kind of everything went right for the Dallas last year. So judging on the fact that sometimes a team will come down to Earth, that they could face a bigger struggle.

And the NFC East is going to be, I think, very competitive. But at the same time, I'm pretty confident still if the Cowboys are going to be, back. I, in fact, have them ahead of the Falcons, but where did you guys have? That's surprising me, because haven't you been on the Cowboys are due to suffer a letdown? Yes, but I feel the same way about the Falcons. Oh. Yeah, but I, I, the reason I have them close together and a little bit lower is that they're both loaded teams,

but there is something about both those teams that I can't move past. I think. So Dan buried the Falcons. That kind of slipped under my rate. I had a bit. Buried. Yeah, okay. At about seven.

Yeah, we were consistent. and we all had the Cowboys 6-6-7. I just could see that. I would be a little surprised if they missed the playoffs, but I wouldn't be shocked because I think that division could go a couple different ways, and I think the NFC is deep. I think it's deeper than the AFC. The one concern for me with the Cowboys is the concern

throughout the Jerry Jones era since Jimmy Johnson left. They just don't have the depth. So if they do get injuries to key positions, I don't see them being there. But the offensive personnel, where you've got an all-pro at wide receiver, an all pro at tight end, three all pros on the offensive line, an all pro at running back,

and the reigning rookie of the year at quarterback, is way too stocked for them to miss the playoffs, barring injuries, I think. I think you're right. I mean, I think the defense, you're just counting on Rod Marinelli to do a lot. You're changing out four starters from a secondary that was pretty good, was the best part of the defense.

You don't really have much in terms of a pass rush to get excited about. It's asking a lot. Well, you say the same thing about Rob Marinelli every year. Mm-hmm. Here's the final five teams that we'll start. Now, these are the teams according to the way we broke it down. It's pretty, none of these teams would surprise any of us in this room if they missed the playoffs.

I'm kind of picking them not to make it. And that starts, you know, that starts in a somewhat surprising place, a team that doesn't get a lot of respect is the Kansas City Chiefs with a score of 25. I'll do the math there. 25 divided by three, well, 24 divided by three is eight. Eight point three. Nice. We have them at eight point three, which is, you know, not.

not that good. Which explains why they are actually ranked eight. Eight, round it down. Then he'd take it down to eight. I mean, the math checks out. Here's my problem with the Chiefs. They are experiencing an identity crisis. They are not operating as a team that is all in to win in 2017.

Or else they would not have cut their number one receiver. They would not have fired their GM. They would not have used their first round pick on a quarterback who won't even come off the bench when they could have used the first round pick. to boost another position in their starting lineup. I don't think they're operating like a team. I love it. That expects to win that division this year.

I like that. I think that the logic checks out. If you're in that building behind closed doors and you're looking at the landscape, and you're saying yourself, okay, I know wins, loss, we have the best record of anybody in last season and a half in the NFL. But are we really at,

can we honestly look in the mirror and tell ourselves that we are better than the Patriots, that we can match up with the Steelers in a big spot, that the Raiders aren't a better, team than us if they're healthy and maybe they're saying to ourselves instead of like selling out with a team we know isn't quite there let's continue to tinker as tom brady gets a little bit older and maybe we'll be ready to strike a year or two it's like let's keep one foot in 2017 let's keep our foot there we we have a chance to make the playoffs but we know we can't get past the patriots of the

steelers but we're going to build around tyreek hill patrick mahomes some young guys on defense especially in the secondary and and they'll be they'll be better for the future. I think they're always trying to compete. And like most good organizations, they're trying to think long term too. I agree with you. You're right. In a way, you're looking ahead with the Mahomes pick. But that's exactly the type of pick that they should be making. And that's one pick, one first rounder. The other two examples, I don't think they believe Jeremy Macklin was that good a player anymore for whatever reason, whether they're right or wrong. And I think the GM thing is something that speaks to dysfunction or speaks to lack of communication. It's not

something they expected to do. It's not a good sign. They allowed this guy to fire a couple of people below him that were respected. Now they hired new guys that he hired, then they fire him. It more has come out about the Dorsey thing since we talking. It sounded like, it really sounds like I think it came down to him swinging his you know what around and maybe wanting the contract, you know, and it had to do it a contract. And the owner was like, who's the boss? I'm the boss. I'm the owner. You're out. Swinging his contract around? Swinging his contract. You never want to do that. All right, number nine on the list.

Not a surprise to me. I thought they'd be lower because of the Eli hatred in this room. The Giants come in with a score of 27. And, well, you guys all have your reasons. But the reason why the Giants are at number nine is what, Greg? Well, I even had them a little lower at number 10. So I fulfilled your stereotype of our views. I had him at eight.

Really? Yeah. So Wes was a little. more optimistic. I'd have been done. I mean, because the only thing keeping them out of the playoffs is their quarterback. Well, potentially, they're two tackles. Whenever I mentioned it on the podcast that their tackles were abysmal last year and they

haven't replaced them at all, Giants fans send me pictures of how much weight Eric Flowers has lost. All right, let's see him play. Let's see him play. You always want your offensive tackles to be in the 240 range. I think they're good. You're talking about your offensive tackle lost weight. Is that a good thing?

Right. They were saying he was out of shape last year. now he's good. Maybe that's fine. And if they improve on the offensive line, then they have a chance. They have some really loaded positions. I'm not going to argue. But we're talking about some good teams here. Yeah. I think they, if I'm Eli, I'm a little bit annoyed. First of all, I'm caught in a some type of memorabilia Ponzi scheme that people are saying I'm a part of. I'm not happy about that. But I'm also not happy about my O line kind of stunk last year. Then my team didn't really invest in free agency or draft stock and fixing that.

And he's like, I'm old. I'm 36 years old now. Am I going to get better like that? But this is a lot that we've talked about. There's a lot of pressure on Eli this year, and he's going to have to perform whether or not that offense one is up to snuff. NFC, east, any one of those teams can win in a given week. And the NFC, I think, is deeper.

So that's why they're deep. No, the Giants need was. I thought they skarnikia. Yeah, they do. Make a power play. Sweep him out of New England. Eli, career year. They could also use Patriots offensive.

line personnel and their quarterback. Oh, that's true. That's fair. They'd take Jimmy G. Although the quarterback, I don't know if you guys. Let's be real Giants fans. You would take Jimmy G over Eli right now. Oof.

You know what? A lot of people would have taken Tom Brady over Eli in those two Super Bowl games as well. That's fair. Just saying. As if like Eli outplayed him or something. Right. Listen, can't change history. History, Wes, as you've said many times, is instructive.

It is. now these last three spots and we got to wrap this up this is going on too long but if you are 30 or higher on this list that means this room does not think you are going back to the playoffs and it starts with the Miami Dolphins at 30 and I will say I'm surprised that they are this low I had them in 11 personally because I'm just not buying into the Dolphins hype but I thought you guys were a little bit more or at least you Greg were a little bit more excited about this Miami team making noise, and apparently not. I like them fine, but you got to compare it to the field.

Do I really like them that much more than the Bengals or the Chargers or the Chiefs, you know, the Broncos? No, I think they're in that middle tier. And there's some things about them in the offense that I like, but I don't expect them to have a better record this year. No way. I think their roster is stronger. I fully expect them to have a worst record because of this reason.

They won eight of their 10 games last year By a touchdown or less And history is instructive That good luck does not go over from year to year It's not going to happen They are much more likely to have bad luck in close games And they're not a team that's going to be blowing teams out They could if you're being optimistic as a doffinson

You look at your division Okay, we could go 4-0 against the Jets and Bills That's true And then you look, all right, maybe we could split with the pads But even if they take us out twice We're still in good shape in our division now we just got to go find another six wins You're making me think I think I did rank them

ahead of the Giants for instance I think they have a pretty strong roster I do too I think their roster is borderline playoff caliber Yeah all right and then 11 on this list So they total 33 The Houston Texans and this one makes sense The quarterback is either

Tom Savage Who may or may not not exist Tom Savage is real Might be Nick Cage preparing for a future role Like we have not really hammered this thing down yet, or Deshawn Watson, who is a completely green rookie, and unless once every 20 years or 30 years, a guy like Dak Prescott comes along and you go to the playoffs. But usually the rookie's not taking into the playoffs, and Tom Savage isn't taking anybody

to the playoffs. I don't care if JJ Watson on your team. For as lucky as the dolphins were, any list you see, even if teams aren't watching, even if statisticians aren't watching games, any list you see if teams unlikely to make the playoffs is going to include the Texans and the Dolphins because of their good luck in close games. The Texans were ranked 29th in Football Outsiders DVOA, which factors into account strength of schedule, how well they were playing at the end of the year. Every factor imaginable.

They were between the 49ers and the Rams, and the Rams, and the Rams, Browns, and Jets last year. This was not a good team. They were a very lucky team last year. The argument for them is they're still in the AFC South, and maybe our Titans, who we like a lot in this room, don't. come through and it only takes nine wins but this was not a good team I do they were dead last on my for this

exercise they were dead last for me I could see them in five games if you look really wow if you look at the last five teams on our collective list the one thing they have in common is that the quarterback position is either a question mark or kind of like a meh

the chiefs Alex Smith we talked about that with a rookie in the wings Eli Manning we don't know what he has left at this point Ryan Tannehill what is Ryan Tannahill no one understands him yet. Or maybe he's just Ryan Tannenhill is the middle-of-the-line quarterback. The Houston Texans there.

And then finally, number 12, the reason I say that is they have a quarterback that could end up getting a contract that's as big or close to Derek Carr's contract and Matthew Stafford. And yet, we have the Detroit lines as the team least likely to get back to the playoffs. Wes, it is a quarterback league.

You boy, Vince Lombardi said it's the only thing that messes up footballs. It's too much dependent on a great quarterback. I'm not going to say Matthew Steffers is a great quarterback, but he's a very good one. And yet, we are so down on the Detroit lines. Why? I ranked them 12th because relegation wasn't an option in this.

What is it? They're fine. They were losing 15 of 16 games in the fourth quarter. By the way, better watch out. Connor or in the last podcast went after people that do relegation bits about the NFL. I love the idea of relegation and wish that all major U.S. sports would take care of it.

Get rid of your little. tanking, you little sports. All right, go on. Start relegating. They were losing in a fourth quarter of 15 to 16 games. That's a sign of a terrible team that got lucky. The Browns are the only other team in the league that was losing in 15 of 16 games in the fourth quarter. The Lions had no business in the playoffs last year.

They backed in with three straight losses at the end of the year, and they are the most boring team in the NFL. Oh, stop. It got personal with Wes. Yeah, they're not that boring. I mean, any team with Matthew, I love watching. Matthew Stafford throw the pigskin around. That's what they say, pigskin. If you're losing.

Real football guys talk like that. They were losing, what, the fourth quarters at the stat, 14 out of 15. Well, that means, you know, it's a lot of comeback wins. Yeah. I'm not saying they're the most exciting team. I mean, how dare you say that the team with Jim Bob Cooter? The Cooter.

The Cooter. So they can play bad games. They can play bad teams tightly. I'm not worried about them on offense overall. I think they can be fine. Their line looks okay. I mean, I put them low on this list, too. Didn't their line just move their left tackle, lose their left tackle and someone else?

That was a problem when you're trading for Greg Robinson. In fact about the Lions, I have a Jim Bob Cooter autograph. Where'd you get it? Knoxville when he was in Tennessee. I'm pretty proud of that. Where does a man keep an autograph? Yeah. Especially in your home?

No, I was, he wasn't, I was what, like 14 when he was there? Oh, okay, gotcha. Yeah. So you don't still have it? Oh, I do. It's just back in the attic. Did you get the autograph just because you thought his last name was funny? No, I got it because

it's Jim Bob Cooter and he's like a folk hero for Tennessee fans. Who was the quarterback at the time? Eric Hange. Former Jet? Yep. Yep. I think Wes was indirectly saying you aren't a man if you're asking others for autographs, but you were a 14 year old

so that that's okay. It's a perfectly acceptable for a 14 year old. I don't think that grown men should be asking other grown men to put their name on a vehicle. No, this wasn't last year. No. Okay, so there you go everybody and lines fans you know where to find chris wesling at chris wesling on twitter uh he just not he's not excited about your team that's just the way it is 35 points by the way i encourage you all to come at me because i haven't been as active on twitter so my block numbers are

going down and i can't have it there you go we got to get chris wessling's block numbers up come after him about the lines and that's it that's it for today's show we'll be back well i'm not going to be back i am uh you know fighting this cold number one but number two i'm going back to new york that means the next time you hear from the rest of the team will be thursday and uh that means the miundi's reed is up up for grabs number one top of the list also coline will be here on thursday right i don't know i believe you guys at the figure i believe mark's a wildcourt she'll be hosting it yeah maybe mark will be back we don't know Maybe he'll be here, maybe you won't.

Have a safe flight. Say hello to Deb and Keith, and I'm sure you'll be playing some cornhole and maybe even a little whiffable. Yeah, and stay strong, brother. Wes is right. Feel better. Greg, thank you.

Yeah. That means a lot to me. All right, so that's it. And when I get back, well, you guys are free to talk about it as well. We need to figure out this 5,000 Redditor. We've got to figure out that. I have an idea.

do you want to share it now or do you want to talk behind the scenes i don't want i don't want to make you uncomfortable when i suggest what i'm going to suggest oh because you're the only wild card here well let's hear it they get an invite to wesselmania four all expenses paid no they have they have they have to get there but they get the invite wow i would be fine with that i would think we should be able to have someone a paid trip uh to some type of i don't know we'll talk about I, listen, I have no problem a listener coming to your party. Okay, that'd be fun.

All right, that's it. This is Dan Hanzas. I'm just trying to get through this day. It's not feel it. Signing off for the mailman, the boss, and Selly behind the glass. Until Thursday. This is an IHeart podcast.