NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Teams you can "stick a fork in" & Team of ATL

Episode Date: September 29, 2015

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, and Marc Sessler – make their final pick for the 2015 Team of ATL. Then the heroes break down which teams you can "stick a fork in" after Week 3. Plus, a recap of the Monday night football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers.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 will own you on the dance floor. 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. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. That opening is just a bold-faced lie.

What are you saying? We're not heroes? Oh, I am quite possibly the worst dancer in L.A. And I imagine none of you three looks like a great dancer. First of all, looks can be deceiving. Hey, wrong about that. In my younger years, when I was a college student in Boston and it was very big to go to clubs and go hip-hop dancing,

I wasn't bad. I'm not going to say I'm a great dancer, but I can, you know, a little bit. Your move, usually in this room, at least, maybe that's not a good indication, is just putting your arms up kind of like Friday night lights, the wife. Also like Bragel Rock. Friday Night's Wight swipe with the wine in her hand. Drunk, yeah.

To start the show. It's a distance thing for me. My ears are too far from my feet. All right. That makes sense. This is the Tuesday edition of the Around the NFL podcast. And, you know, a lot to get to. We got the Monday night game recap, which is going to be very fun because there's a lot to talk about there.

Another Packers victory. Some trades in the NFL involving one franchise that might be thrown in the old. tank the old tankeroo before the start of october uh yes we are going to choose the team of around the NFL hmm are we this is going to well hopefully what if it doesn't happen then it's not happening i mean let's face it if we can't come up with something we got to just bag the whole thing let's come out of this room it's today what are the 12 angry men just four angry men we'll figure it out i like that let's do it right i'm not angry well you know sometimes you can be well you're in charge you don't need to be angry uh we will it's time to fork some teams that's that's time of year again we're feeling bullish about our fork capabilities so we're going to name some teams that have no chance of going to the playoffs and then we're going to preview the thursday night game which of course is a afc north show down between the oh and three ravens and the two and one stealers that's a lot of show and uh but before we get into it i do want to check in you know you can a lot of ways to access the around the NFL podcast

You have a Stitcher, you have iTunes, you have the NFL.com site. You have YouTube. YouTube only on our Sunday night show now. Just to clarify for any listeners looking for it, just the Sunday night show. Apple TV. Some people have Apple TV even, so that's good too. But I do like to check in at iTunes because they do have a customer reviews section. And I will start by saying the reviews are very good.

It's an average of four and a half out of five stars. That seems good. we once won an award best of 2013 that was a long time ago now well it's best new podcast yeah so we can't be we're coasting off of that now we're coasting so you know I figured we love that our fans submit reviews you know sometimes the reviews aren't great so that's that's let's just go over a couple of reviews before we get into Monday night it'll be fun uh Brandon we'll start with let's do positive throne of ease five stars want to listen to a great podcast by a group of guys who absolutely love football and will make you laugh.

The only thing left to do is bet against Andy Dalton in the playoffs, and you're all set, big fan. That's right. That was nice. That was nice. God damn, right. Thank you, Emily Hanses. Yeah, so how about this?

Oh, this one I like. I like this one. Not terrible. Two stars out of five. As big as the NFL is, you'd think there'd be a lot to offer by way of podcasts. There's not, though. This particular group of knuckle-dragging mega-mines are overwhelmingly annoying to listen to, but offer some good insight every now and then.

Dan Hansis sort of hosts the show. Mark Sessler tries way too hard to use vocabulary that sits outside of his fourth grade reading level and makes himself sound like an idiot. Greg Rosenthal makes cool indie picks about trending teams and players, and Chris Wessling just complains about the listeners in his weird, hybrid, super obnoxious accent. What the hell is that? The show is fine. I'll listen to it if there's nothing else left.

Thank you, Simone Sessler. Wow. That was on the nose. And yet, you know. Let's do another good one. Just, you know. This one is, get off my back, dad. Five stars.

One of the most entertaining podcasts out there has been a staple in my iPhone for years. That's nice. There's another one, quidessential football podcast. If you were a fan of podcast, the NFL, there's no reason you shouldn't be listening to the ATN crew. What about the fact that we're knuckle draggers? Well, that's a different guy. How about this one?

Stay on football. You know, they hate sometimes they don't like it when you... That was Greg. One star out of five. Is this a serious football podcast or amateur comedy hour? That's a good question. All right, one more. Does it say something about me?

Like the nice ones don't mean anything to me. me, but I kind of like hearing the negative ones. I think that does say. Here's a good one. Here's a good one. So good. So good. Five stars, a royal listener. Favorite, favorite podcasts of all the random ones I have. That's good. But then, unbearable smugness.

One star by Mr. Falcon. That was Delaware's first album. It's honestly hard to get through an entire episode. The host, despite what they may think, are really unfunny and lack basic football knowledge. I guess that's what I should have expected from podcasts hosted by journalists who have never played football in their lives. Oh, wow. You know, by the way, hashtag journales.

Let me just tell you something. What's your name? Mr. Falcon, you clown. There are plenty of shows that you could watch. Check the dial, buddy, to hear athletes with nothing relevant to say post career. Go find it and go enjoy hot takes about, oh, Aaron Rogers, he's just a football player. Go enjoy it. I got to admire the people that dislike the show, but keep listening to us.

That says more about them. That's what we're looking for. If they have to listen to us so badly that they just can't stop doing it, even though they don't enjoy it. I don't quite understand that. I think it's accurate and fair to say I have a weird hybrid accent, but that take on Mark's vocabulary was that wasn't fair at all. I thought it was fair criticism. It seemed fair. You graduated high school.

And I did, I did great. Well, I got past fourth, great. That guy, he was especially biting. He's KD.O. 24, 2600. I did, just out of curiosity. I clicked in to see his other reviews. And while we didn't get a good review, he did have a nice review of Ice Age Village, a game.

Addicted five stars. Love it, but need more opportunities to earn acorns. You're a loser. All right. Well, you know. Let's, you know, keep it real. You're a loser. All right, that's it.

Listen, no one said. I handle criticism well. No. Well, I think, you know, it was bold of you to read the negatives along with the positives. I thought they're much more interesting. I want to read more negatives. And our listeners should, you know, chime in too. It helps.

Listen, yes, there are good reviews, many more good reviews and bad reviews, but this is a good way to keep, you know, keep on even ground. You don't want to go floating away, big old head out of the building. Hey, Brandon, our last week with Brandon, how you doing, bud? I'm good. Good. How are you? I'm good. Are you getting a little.

A little misty-eyed? I'm going to miss the odd now? No, not yet. Thursday. You're young, though, because you have a lot of opportunity ahead of you, no matter what happens here. Oh, I appreciate that. That's good.

All right, let's do some news. You got it. Yeah, okay. Well, this is going to hurt like a motherfucker. Am I the only one that's wrong? I have no idea what it's from. It's from the office. That's what I thought.

Michael Scott's taking the last day. Oh. There we go. All right, there we go. All right, late period office. I like it. There we go. Nicely done.

All right, very well done. All right. Let's start with a Monday night football game. Where Aaron Rogers delivered another Aaron Rogers performance, five touchdowns, no interceptions, through over 300 yards, a 38, 28, 28 win over the Chiefs in Lambeau Field. This was a game that was not as close as the final score indicates. You know, it was, I believe, 31. 17 at one point. James Jones went off. He has revitalized 100 yards plus and a touchdown.

Randall Cobb had three touchdowns. No Jordy and Nelson, no problem for the Packers offense. 3828. And Wes, you wrote up the piece on NFL.com are what we learn, which I heartily endorse. Everyone should check it out. This was just more magic from Aaron Rogers. It was. I think what we're seeing this year is just that he's raised the art of quarterbacking. He has raised his game to a new level. We knew about the armed talent, which is the best in the NFL and among the best we've ever seen. We know about his athleticism, his capability, is scrambling, his decision-making. And then he's got this new thing that he's doing this year where he's just reliably almost,

getting defenses to jump off sides and attacking them for big plays, or quick-snapping defenses to get 12 men on the field calls and still attacking for big plays. and it's a lethal part of his game now. He's so consistent right now. This was a game. He didn't have the wow plays that he often does, and yet he'll just cut you up anyways. He'll have the subtle plays where,

I mean, he is the best in the league at just creating extra time to make what, on paper isn't that tough of a throw, but the setup to it is very difficult. The footwork it takes and getting space to make the throw. He is the best at doing that. I mean, this is a game where he can have to, 333 yards and five touchdowns.

And I can think that might have been the third best game he had this year. Like that's how good he is. He didn't need to be any better because he's so good before the snap, like a Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. I had like the rare chance to just sit at home and watch it on the iPad with no interruptions and nothing I had to do on the side. And I asked Wes this morning when I came in because, you know, we don't get to watch the games that close when they're happening in full length time.

And listening to him operate with the. center, the way they had the directional mic, you could hear Rogers pre-snap talking to center, all right, boy, who you got, who you got, what's up, boys, who you got? And then the center was like, I got 90, I got 90s, like, sounds good, sounds good. I mean, it was like all this like pre-snap talk. Well, no, because you don't see that out of a lot of quarterbacks. And I think that Rogers, especially the 12 men thing that he got them on twice, he out-coached Andy Reed from the field. And you look at bad teams.

He's pointing at you. You could go, like the Browns, for instance, I don't think, can't think of one quarterback performance one game where a quarterback did what rogers did last year that was that was your text last night was when was the last time the browns had a a quarterback that that would be quick enough to pull that off the answer is just about never never the craziest thing for me watching the game and it was it was so fun to watch rogers which makes what we'll talk about a little bit later about some advanced metrics grading about rogers performance all the stranger but um the fact that he didn't even, the Chiefs, you got to give him some credit.

They actually got to him a little bit in terms of rushing the passer. They made some plays. They almost had an interception. They stripped him at one point. It got called back. It wasn't like the Chiefs didn't show up on defense. And yet, you look at the final score and you look at his stats and you look the way he controlled the game.

Even with Kansas City showing up, in my opinion, it still wasn't even close to good enough against the guy at that level. But there were plays, too, where they did about just as much as you could ask from a couple of pass rushers and he with eyes in the back of his head and we've seen it a million times pivots, dances around, floats across the field and completes a pass to someone that no one else saw. I mean, right. Well, that was my takeaway from the Seahawks game was that the Seahawks defense played a good game. They were the Seahawks defense in that game. They pressured him. They were outstanding with their pressure the whole game. The biggest plays against them were

perfect passes that were impossible to stop and great catches by his receivers who have done a fantastic job this year without Jordy Nelson. They might not get as open as they used to, but his receivers are making place for him. Yeah, he loses Devante Adams. He loses Jordy Nelson. He loses Andrew Corliss, and he keeps on going. Like, there's, in the intelligence to attack Marcus Cooper, Jamel. Jamel Fleming had been the chief's weak spot at Nickel. They bring in Marcus Cooper. He attacks him right away. Two big penalties in the touchdown to Ty Montgomery. Then Tyvon Branch, their safety has to play Cobb in the slot, and he attacks that matchup. And it's something that maybe, you know, people grading the game might not see

and might not give them credit for it. But you have to give them credit for it. That's part of quarterbacking. Before we get into the PFF, what do we think about the Chiefs? Because, you know, you said they showed up and I hear you on some level. But on the other hand, it's why we haven't been excited or why I'm annoyed that the Chiefs were on in prime time twice. They were just supporting actors in the Aaron Rogers and Packer show.

The game was over quickly. They have these star players like Houston and Charles and Travis Kelsey. And yet they're just so uninspiring to watch. The game is over after three quarters. I know they came back. List the teams in that spot on Monday night at Lambeau Field with Aaron Rogers healthy and at the height of his powers where that's a competitive game right now. I don't care about what time of the game.

The Bears were competitive in week one. That's a good point. But this game was the quintessential example of why the Andy Reid, Alex Smith formula, doesn't add up to wins in big games because that two-minute drill before the half was embarrassing and frustrating and everything you need to know about the Andy Reed Alex Smith combination. They didn't attack down the field.

They run like a 17-play drive? Yeah, how about that at the end of the game when they needed to score quickly? In theory, it looks better on the scoreboard. Well, that's because the Packers let you take a 17-play drive that took a five minutes in the fourth quarter because it's just not in their DNA to go fast and to push the ball down the field.

So that's fine, but it's only going to take you to nine wins. I mean, that feeds into what my takeaway with the Chiefs was they were just badly out-coached. There were plenty of times where they needed to run, hurry up, and move that thing, and they just seemed completely in a different world. It was like the Eagles and the Patriots Super Bowl. I thought it was funny when you tweeted that Aaron Rogers was out-coaching Andy Reed. Well, he was on the field.

I mean, he drew, he created multiple Chiefs penalties, like we talked about. He makes everyone look so bad. Yeah. He's like watching Greg in the newsroom when breaking news happens. Greg is just... It's like minority part where he's got the screen. Everything is happening. And they did the whole draft montage with Alex Smith and Aaron Rogers just as we talked about. And I kept thinking, like, of course, Andy Reid, you know, if he had Aaron Rogers, he would be a much better coach.

It's like when Alex Smith drew the packers off sides late in the game, he went for a big play too. I don't know if you remember that play. And he was intercepted. And they kept the ball. But when Aaron Rogers pulls the other team off sides, he goes for the big play and he gets the touchdown because he's Aaron Rogers. So the Chiefs got rid of that drought, which had become the most notorious stat.

Did you know? Since week 13 of 2013, no touchdowns, wide receivers. But an even more ignominious stat, this is just crazy to me, 62 consecutive games without a two-minute drill touchdown. That was mentioned during that game, and that is ridiculous. The broadcast crew mentioned that, and they showed the clip.

And I just thought that is unbelievable. Now, Alex Smith and any read are only responsible for half of those games. But it just goes to show you how badly the chiefs have been quarterbacked. All right. And now let's talk about that PFF rating of Aaron Rogers game. He had five touchdowns, no picks, 333 passing yards at 138.5 passer rating. And yet, he got a negative grade by PFF. And PFF, for those that don't know, is an analytic site that we, at the around the NFL,

and many other people refer to often. It's a really good research tool. But this got a lot of buzz on the Internet on Tuesday morning because it was so out of whack. And, Wes, I know you must have something to say about this. You went after some of the writers, Wes. I don't think I did go after them. I'm not angry about it.

I'm embarrassed for them. I really am because they put out great work, and I know how hard they work. I love their metrics, but their grades are flawed. It's a grading system that is inherently flawed. lawed, and it depends on what the person doing the grading sees and values, and they don't value what I value, and I don't think they value what other astute analysts and coaches value. Well, it just belies common sense to look at him have a 0.0, negative 0.0.

They graded last night's game as one of the worst games of his last five years. Well, they're saying, and I think this is fair, that you have to count the play where he held onto the ball forever and fumble. Right, but how much do you count it? Do you count that as minus 1 or minus 0. Right. I'm saying it doesn't add up that they don't count anything pre-snap. They say that's intangibles.

Like deciding where to go with the ball, to them is intangibles. They're only counting post-snap. Which makes the grade useless. Which should be listed at the top of the ranking, I guess, because if you're grading Peyton Manning for the last five years, only post-snap, how is that Peyton Manning? Because that's where all the magic is. I considered having somebody from PFF on,

but I felt like it was going to become a bloodbath that happened. But I just will say, it would have been. Ben Stockwell, who's one of their writers, offered a blog post explaining himself. And Greg, you mentioned the intangible aspect

where they say they tried not to factor that in. And then he added that the three Randall Cobb touchdown passes, well, you know, good job for the points. They weren't hard passes necessarily. That makes sense to me. And they're also seeing, even though it was a negative grade,

this maybe speaks to something. They might have to get together in a room and fix this as well. That's not a bad game if it's a negative score. So that's a little misleading. Because he was barely negative. It was like a C. Yeah, but he had a bad though, right? In the first game against the Bears,

he had a rating of seven. Yeah. Positive. So was it that much different than that game? I thought the first game of the year was his best game of the year, but this was anybody, a casual fan can see watching this game. It was a great performance. And if their grading system can't figure out,

out how to measure that, then it's a mess. To their defense, everyone keeps calling it advanced metrics and advanced statistics. What they do is scouting. Putting the numbers on it is where everyone gets carried away and confused, I think, and it is confusing to me, too, because all they're doing is evaluating each play. It has nothing to do with statistics. I mean, all they're doing is giving a plus score and a minus score, and that's what scouts do on everything. But it adds up to metrics when you've got hurries and yards after contact.

It has nothing to do with like advanced statistics, though. It just seems like a weird misnomer. It's a totally subjective evaluation. The subjective part is the reason why you end up with a minus 0.3 grade for Rogers. When anyone with, you know, two eyes can see it was a great game. In their defense, I do think you could watch the three Aaron Rogers games this year and make that evaluation. This was actually the third least impressive game. But that's just speaking to how unbelievable he was.

Right. They also evaluated as less impressive than Nick Fuller. performance. That's out. Dan and I are actually at the cozy having beers at this point. We're not, we just stepped out of this. Two-person conversation. We could turn Wes and Greg Luce to talk football analytics and scouting.

We'd be here all day. But we got to move on. Is that okay? Yes. All right. Let's do it. Let's talk a trade in the NFL. Jared Allen was obviously not a good fit when John Fox came into power in Chicago,

playing in a three, four. And now he was stuck on a bad bear's team. So what happens is they do the guy a favor, it seems like. They trade him to the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers will send a 2016 sixth round pick to Chicago. It sounds like the Bears are also going to assume a lot of the salary that Jared Allen was owed. So now the Panthers get a veteran pass rusher.

It's unknown how much he has left in the tank. But it's a borderline Hall of Fame candidate with, I believe, over 100 career sacks. And the Bears, obviously, and going in a different direction, totally. They also traded John Bostic, a linebacker to the Patriots for a 20. 16 late round picks. So the Bears at 0 and 3 seem to be packing it in right now.

Well, the first one, Jared Allen, I would give credit to the Bears GM, Ryan Pace. It's a classy move. And I think it should help them lower free agents in the future that a guy like Jared Allen, who's the active sack leader and respected around the league, he's not going to have to sit there and deal with a dumpster fire all year. You actively find a contender for him to play out. But that's reading between the lines of some of the reports, I think that's a guy. basically could be because they foresaw that becoming a problem,

that they didn't necessarily like him being there when they saw no long-term future for him and they wanted to get snapped. Well, it's something Jared Allen mentioned in August. Right. And it makes total sense. He's at a new position, all that. The money thing that you mentioned, Dan,

is the amazing part about it. They were forced to give him $11.5 guaranteed million dollars in March because the previous GM had, you know, guaranteed that. So they gave him all that money and the Panthers get a starter. Even if Jared Allen's not great anymore, he's a league average starter at this point. They get a starter for no money the rest of the year. It's not that the bears are, you know, paying his money. He's only due a million dollars this year. So they owe him about 800,000. So they owe him, they get a starter for that cheap and basically nothing, which is great for Carolina.

One of the reasons why bad teams stay bad. They have regime changes every couple of years. And every time you change your scheme, A guy like Jared Allen, like you mentioned, they have to pay him $10 million because they had signed him for a 4-3 defense. I think it's interesting that this coaching staff is talking about scheme fit and it speaks to long-term planning when you're ready to get rid of Bostick, especially as a young player and not shipped him over. I'm not sure this coaching staff's going to be here that long if they continue the season the way it is because there's nothing to like.

They're last in the league and points allowed per game. Well, you have to have some buy-in from ownership. I believe that, hey, can we get rid of these old players that didn't fit that you get a couple years? Because that's why they're in this situation. I was going to say, how much can you hang on? I know John Fox isn't a favorite in this room, but he inherited a bad roster in a terrible situation right at the top of the offense with Jay Cutler. This is not a one-year project. You would think they'd be smart enough to give this regime a couple years.

But why are you waiting until September 29th? Yeah. Didn't you know they weren't a scheme fit in March and April and May? Right. You could have eaten the money then. Maybe it was hard to convince ownership, hey, I know we have to give this guy $12 million, but we just don't even want them on our team. Maybe it was hard to convince them then, and now they can because that's a lot of money.

That's an insane amount of money. It was a bad contract when the old regime gave it to him. It was a very bad contract. After you start out 0 and 3 with the worst point differential in the league, you can be John Fox and Ryan Pace and walk into ownership and say, hey, realistically, our goal now is to get the best draft pick we can get and rebuild this thing. The Bostick thing quickly, I just want to mention. He was a top 50 pick that played okay for them last year.

He did not. He's a liability and run support. His instincts, like he doesn't know where to go. Started 17 games in his first two seasons, second round pick out of Florida. It's kind of reminiscent of Akeem Errors and Jonathan Gaseas last year. Two guys who played roles on the Super Bowl team traded at the deadline. If I was Gerard Mayo, not that most people probably care that much. But if I have a Gerard Mayo, I'd be a little worried about this.

He's not been much of a factor this year. they bring in Bostick who plays the same position. I think Gerard Mayo's probably who's been a great Patriots player is probably on his way out there. Bears are all in on a 2 and 14. They're pushing all the chips. Where wins coming from? I don't know.

They basically bagged this season when they refuse to move away from Jake Hutler. Yeah. All right. That's what's happening in the news. The team Team Of the ATL

Only one team can learn the right Now's the time to shine a light On the team Oh This is a very special honor Indeed. What are you laughing at was? I was laughing because Mark laughed.

You could tell just how silly he thought the lyrics were. Only one the team can earn the right. I always figured how long it is. I always think, wait, is it? Oh, wow, it's so good. That could be as long as Bohemian Rhapsody. I would never stop playing. I love it so much.

Yes, it is. What is that last line in the song? It's a very special offer. And it is. And, you know, that's why we, You put so much thought into it each year, whether or not the teams actually know that they are the team of ATL or ATN. It's more, it's an honor that even they don't know about. Just like Mark, there's somebody out there that you've never met that thinks you're the greatest thing that ever happened to NFL.com.

Not according to the review that you read before. Not that guy, but he also, he wants more acorns. So don't get to, you know, beat up about that. But there's somebody out there that thinks you're the best guy in this podcast. and he loves your writing, and he likes your wit and how you get crusty sometimes and how you point your finger and you get the fire eyes. All that stuff makes them love you.

That's us with whatever team we choose. They don't know, but it doesn't mean that love's not there. Dan channeling Stewart's smart. I think they are going to. I can buy that to some of your time. You know, we started out a humble little podcast, but we're no longer humble. We're going to make this team know.

They're going to know. We're going to have some of them on. And by the end, the whole country is going to be talking. With the way these team sites like to self-glorify themselves, they'll take advantage of it. That's fair point, especially the social media guys. So 2013, the first year we did it, the Carolina Panthers, did us proud. 2014, we struggled a little bit, settled on the Chargers, much to Wes's chagrin. They were okay.

They were in the mix until the end of the season. They put up some exciting games. But, listen, no one's going to say the Chargers will be the ultimate team of ATL, the 2014 edition, which takes us to 2015, and it's time to decide. because if you take it too much longer, then it's like, what do you even hear it for? That's what we did last year. You jibronies.

Just make a decision. And on Sunday show, if you listen to Sunday show, which you could still check it out, by the way, NFL.com slash podcast or iTunes or Stitcher or YouTube where our Sunday night shows are available. We talked about how the Cardinals were right on the precipice, a team that we almost picked last year. And this year, we got three yes votes from,

Greg and Mark and Wes And I held out Not because I'm against the Cardinals But just because I wanted to You know, cross the T's and dot the eyes, if you will And I do want to nominate another team What is a very special honor? You got to give it the attention at dessert?

Exactly. And that is Dick Banks, by the way, The one-man house band Who performed that song. We actually paid him to do that. We paid, there was like... Where did the money? come from. Roger Goodell.

It actually, yeah, came from some sort of budget. Someone paid for that song. I just want to make that clear as well. Is there more money in that coffer that we could use for our own fun? And we, of course, were put in touch with Dick Banks from... Did you get a song ready credit? Listen, I haven't got a royalty check yet, but I'm hoping it eventually lands in my mailbox.

So thank you to Sheck for putting us in touch with Dick Banks. And Greg, you and I were on the Sheck Show on Tuesday morning so you could check us out there too. All right. Now, All right. So the Cardinals are obviously a finalist, and we can get into that a little later. I'm going to just nominate, formally nominate the Atlanta Falcons. And I'll give a quick resume, if you will, and then we'll talk about it.

And, Wes, you have to promise me to have an open mind here. Okay. Okay. The Falcons are 3.0. We know that. That's great. Great start. A team after languishing under Mike Smith in those final years, one of the most boring teams.

get a total facelift under new coaching, 3-0, averaging 29.7 points a game. This is a team that puts up points. If you're a guy that likes scoring, you like the Falcons, they're going to score points. They're second in the league in passing. So, yes, there's a lot of action going on there. 14th and rushing.

They used to be an albatross when it comes to rushing the football. They got two nice little players in the backfield there, as we saw. They run the ball. This past week. So they had a balanced offense. Julio Jones. We talk about, oh, we like to watch his team. How could you not like to watch?

Julio Jones. He's good. Historical talent. And he's on pace for historic season. Matt Ryan. Now, I bring up Matt Ryan because I consider Matt Ryan. And Greg, I think you agree. Q be in need of more love.

When you talk about who are the quarterbacks, everyone's always talking up is the best in football. Matt Ryan is, to me, the top five conversation at quarterback. And we don't hear that enough. And finally, Dan Quinn, around the NFL favorite. I know Wes and Mark both had nice personal interactions with Quinn. I believe at the Combine or at the Super Bowl. Super Bowl, right?

At the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl. Yes, and left you with a nice taste in your mouth by the bald, handsome, goate, Dan Quinn. And a nice name, by the way. And the Jets' second choice is head coach. So I think about that as well. Probably would have been the Jets head coach if the Seahawks didn't go to the Super Bowl. He was the Brown's top choice and they didn't want to wait for him.

Yeah, I thought that thought was he was their first choice. Yep, and then they went to the Super Bowl. So who knows, history could have played out differently. That is the resume for. the Atlanta Falcons your thoughts guys I would quickly vote yes I think you're going to have a tough time getting four across but I would quickly vote yes for what you mentioned also Kyle Shanahan I think is one of my favorite coordinators who you just see what what happened in Cleveland since he's left big problems I think that he's completely changed the running game in Atlanta they were very

they annoyed me last year because it was Matt Ryan and Julio Jones and nothing else and they're a little more balanced this season I think Quinn we like Quinn I would vote yes without any hesitation even though they're a dome team don't care i'm willing to bend off that well the dome team thing doesn't bother me generally the malaise of their fandom has bothered me over the years at some points i think they're going to be getting into this team i would i would hope so uh one thing i really like about the falcons in terms of wanting to watch them each week some teams just get an entertaining games and the falcons are one of those teams and i think those are often teams that are weighted towards the offense which this team is going to be

You watch the three Falcons games this year. They've all been entertaining. I mean, the Monday night game was great. The Giants game was back and forth, big comeback win, and the Cowboys game was another big comeback win. So they've got that little extra juice. That's well said. Something.

Well, I'm inclined to like the Falcons. I spent eight years in Georgia. I treasure that time. Julio Jones is one of my favorite players since he's entered the league. Vic Beasley is already one of the most fun pass rushers to watch. Vic. Dan Quinn, like you said, one of my favorite coaches. But I'm voting no, because there can only be one team of ATL, and that's the Cardinals.

Well, I mean, that to me doesn't count necessarily as a reason why to vote against them. I know, because you have a team you already in love with. The team of ATL is a lark for you. I have said, I judge it. That's totally unfair and baseless, Wes. It is a lark. You're not going to sit here and watch game film of the Falcons every week. I will every week, if this happens.

I do not believe you for a second. I want to see that happen. Jesus, I promise. I will. Look, to me, this is about when I get home. You went to the top. After a 13-hour Sunday at work, when I get home and I want to go to sleep or watch Casablanca or something, what game do I turn on just because even though I have nothing, no fumes

left in the tank? Who's inspiring me to watch game pass that night? Yeah. And it's the Cardinals easily. The Falcons would be towards the top of my list in terms of who are the most. entertaining teams. That's why I would vote yes. Now, I have a different voting philosophy, which is I would,

if you brought up four or five teams, I would vote yes on the Rams. I still like the Rams. I know that would never happen. Right. I wouldn't totally. I'm not totally. I would not totally, well, those would probably be the three teams that I would favor the most. But I would vote yes.

I'm with you. I think that after going through this drill a couple of years, that I would vote for the Titans. I'd vote yes for the Falcons. I'd vote yes. I'll vote for the Cardinals, but you're right, Wes. It's not because it's my favorite team that I'm itching to watch. I think it really boils down when it was the Panthers.

We've been through this. In my opinion, this was a team that you and Greg got into. It was completely organic, and that's how the Cardinals are for me as well. It was completely organic, but it was something that you two were more fascinated about. I'll roll with the ride. I'm not going to hold you up, but it's not because the Cardinals are the only team that gets my juices flowing. The Panthers still get my juices flowing because they got the same. same quarterback that they've always had and they're in their in their overachieving once again i

still like the panther i mean dan here's the thing yes you could you could pitch all 31 other teams and they're not getting them through at this point well well well you're not that's a true he's going to talk about i've only voted less is honest exactly he's going to shut down anything else that comes up so it's either the cardinals or bust right that's a situation you're in last year let's just we need to be honest though and it sounds like we are going to go with the cardinals because west is this is the equivalent of a temper tantrum let's be honest west it's not a temper tantrum. I think that you have the luxury of a team to root for.

The team of ATL means something way different to you than it does to me. That's why I don't think it's the team of ATL. It's the team of West. I don't say that in a negative way. It's not about us. I would vote to get rid of it because I don't think that we can come to a, we can't come to a mutual respect here on. I would agree.

I don't like being cast as the evil person. It's not evil. Like I have the right attitude. I agree. I think West does have the right attitude in terms of this conversation today, which is Falcons and Cardinals. Because to me, the Cardinals are the more entertaining team. They are exciting.

I love their coach. I love John Brown. I love the Carson Palmer story that he has a chance to finally have a team around. They've made me like Chris Johnson this year. That's fun. Like everything about them that they're a downtrodden franchise. We all love them in this room last year. So when it comes down to it, there can only be one team.

And I think the Cardinals are the best team of the teams we're talking about. They are the best option. Hear me out on this, Wes. I'm down with the Cardinals too. I'm not against the Cardinals. I just felt that it was important. And there are people out there.

Oh, what about the Panthers again? You know, enjoy beating teams that are combined one and eight through three weeks. We'll see what happens. We'll see where your record's at after week 17. Nice start. I like you, Cam Newton, but you're not in the mix. And to me, it was the Falcons that jumped out.

But I'm not going to stop. I'm not going to stop. stop down here and not let this happen just because I want the Falcons up and bad because it doesn't matter that much to me I think the Cardinals are a fun team. They're great. Let me try to explain this in a different way.

The Falcons are attractive. To me, you are in love with the Jets. Mark's in love with the Browns. Greg, you know, he's kind of, I don't know if I'd call it love anymore. Who knows? But to me, I love a lot of teams. Patriots are on the top of them.

All right, let's let Wes have a set. To me, the team of ATL is like falling in love. This happened with the Panthers for me a couple years ago. It's a mystery. You want to know everything about that team. It's like when you have a favorite song and you have to play it a hundred times because there are nuances in that song you have to get to know and you want to unwrap them. That's how I feel about the Cardinals.

I don't feel that way about the Falcons. You seem confident about the ways of love when it comes to football teams. I've fallen in love several times in my life. I know how it works. Well, I'm fine with that. Again, I'm with you. I like the Cardinals. I actually went back last night because I was,

I don't want to jump on a team that just goes 14 and 2. That's not really for me what the team of ATL is about. I'd like a team that's a little bit more in the middle where you've got to kind of root for them. They're a little bit more of the underdog. That's not going to happen this year. They're not the favorite. What if we saw the Cardinals as a team that was going to be 14 and 2

before everyone else saw that they were going to be 14 and 2? Well, we can say that, but they're three. a no. Right. But I wanted them to be the team of ATL in week one. But I don't even, I don't care about the record. When everybody was giving the division, that wasn't really my point, but fair enough. I, but even right now, people would still think that the Seahawks are the favorite in the division. And I think Wes is, we're not picking a team to be ahead of everyone else, right? I think the definition of liking the team and wanting to watch them is the perfect definition. And the Cardinals fit that for me, whether we're a year

ahead or not. We all liked them last year too. And I like that they are a downtrodden franchise. They're so disrespected and they've been so in the bottom of the barrel. Couldn't even make the pain rankings. They couldn't even make the pain rankings even though they have had the worst franchise

overall top to bottom in terms of lack of winning since the day they've started. It's been in three different cities because no city can stand them for so long. Well, I appreciate Greg trying to drum up some enthusiasm for this. So let's... I'm not trying to It's wildly genuine.

No, that's very genuine. You're not excited about it at all, but I'm totally excited. I love the card. I think it's just, I'm just saying we, if Wes can opine about why he wants this, we all have different viewpoints. Right. And I don't, yeah, that's the same way about this time. That's why I would vote to get rid of a team of ATN.

I'd be fine with that. That is crazy. I won't stand. I would think, I think the segment is, I vote no on eliminating the team of ATI. It's run its course. We don't, we all have different, you know, MOs here. And I don't think it's worth, like, being attacked over it.

All right. Well, you know, we're not trying to hurt anybody's feelings here. Well, I just like, you know, I want something out of the team that you and Mark don't want. No, and that's fine, but I don't think I don't want to, I don't want to have to force you guys into something that you're not. Let me give you one promise. I will promise you, Wes, that once this becomes official, I'm all in. You won't hear me talking about, oh, we should have went with the Falcons. I'm all in.

We go with the Cardinals. I'm in on the Cardinals and let's have some fun. Exactly. That's how I feel, too. I said I'd vote for five different teams. It's not something I'm going to come back to anyone on five or six times, but the point is our level of enthusiasm for it is in different places. That's fine, too, by the way.

That's why you close the doors and you figure out who the team is. And I think maybe some things were said. Maybe we could take some things back if we could. Maybe we shouldn't have said some things we should have. But at the end of the day, I think we figured it out. I think the Arizona Cardinals are the 2015 team of around the NFL. there you go see well anything worth having has to you have to go through trouble for it and that was like 10 minutes of turmoil i guess it'll it's got to be valuable if you have to go

think of uh you know having a baby that's not very easy and yet what it's easy for you to say what comes out a beautiful little child's an excellent analogy Greg went through the fire on that one lest anyone think that our debates are are not genuine like we're you know there's a any skip Bayless element. Hell no. That was real debate. Yeah. That was real.

R. E. A. L. And the Cardinals are the team around the NFL. So congratulations, Cardinals. If someone tells you, you'll probably be very confused. So there you go. Wait, we have to decide one more thing.

What? Are we going to keep calling the team of ATL or the team of ATN or the team of ATN or the team of ATN NFL? It's poor branding in this point. Yeah. For those who are new to this. show we used to be the around the league podcast and at the time that i contracted dick banks uh for the song uh we were still atl and then after he recorded it our show was changed to

at n um you know at n afl and team of atl it was what we called the panthers so yes there's a little bit of ambiguity there but we're just going to you know continue to use both i guess unless we want to just nail one and just go forward team of a team of the around the nfl podcast oh that's not a off the tongue. That smells good. Do you want to keep caught in the team of ATL? I'm cool with whatever, but. It's another reason why I was good not to pick the Falcons.

It would have been very confusing. That's true. Well, we just, we didn't decide anything here. Well, yeah. Well, that may be whatever you're most comfortable with, but there is no debating. The Cardinals are the team. There you go.

That's how we get things done. Let's move on. It's a special honor. Congress can't solve anything. We came up with some legislation. Make America great again. Political hot take. It's time to bury some teams

that had no chance of being a team of ATL. These we agree about. Stick a fork in them. All right. This is after debate. This is one thing we all got behind

on our IM client here at the office to be the stick of fork in them every year we decide which teams have no chance of making the playoffs. Not on my new chance. There's no chance.

And if we are wrong on any of these teams, Greg in the past has donated to a local food bank, I believe, and never forgot, he just kept reminding us about it. Oh, do you remember the time where I had a charitable mind and shared it with my wallet? Greg gave it to like the young Republicans of Orange County. That is the last group I would ever give to.

But I will say, as a group, as a group, I would think if we get any of these wrong, we should all chip in and donate to maybe a local shelter or. something like that's true especially with our new liberal leanings in terms not in terms of politically but everyone just wants to get bold and throw the teams out there that means we're going to get some wrong and that we should all is everyone comfortable with that i'm not saying it's going to affect you being able to pay rent but we all chip in a little money and we donate if we get something wrong yeah because talk about a segment that probably should have gotten buried it's the way we handled this last year where this is about who we think you guys the playoffs or not and it's not

it's not are they mathematically still alive and week of And last year, we want to be ahead of the curve. We were completely behind the curve with this exercise last year. We didn't do it last year. You guys, this segment was such a waste of time. I agree that we literally didn't do it last year. Go back and left. This time, we're fine being wrong because we're going to try to be bold.

It was the year before where we were bold. Let's, you know, forget the internal semantics of the podcast. This year, we will be forking teams and we will donate to a charity if we blow one. Is that cool with you to us? Absolutely. Right. So these are the teams that we all. And there are six teams at a 32, Greg, there are 32 teams in the NFL.

There are six teams that are already done. No chance. If any of these teams make the playoffs, a charity gets some funnage. The Chicago Bears, the Cleveland Browns, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, and the San Francisco 49ers. So those teams are all done We all agreed on IM about these teams But is there any of these teams

That any of us are a little nervous about Sneaky nervous Well the Lions won 11 games last year So they're a logical pick O&3 I'm a little uneasy about that O and 3 is a tough hole I would actually say The Buccaneers

Just because I guess I don't feel bad about it anyway That division, you just never know what could possibly happen. But no, I feel good about all these. We had some close calls, which we can wait for. But this group here, I have no issues with. Playoff-wise? If we were hesitant to fork the lines in the same division with the Packers, this segment would be useless.

But they don't need to win the division. Right, but they would, at 0-and-3, they have to beat out about six or seven other good teams for a wild card. And they're not playing well. And their offensive line has issues, and their quarterback has issues. Yeah. And their defense is being shredded. Fork them.

If I could take, if I had to pick one of these teams that would be the most likely, I'd take back my answer. It would definitely be the 49ers because the 49ers have played three games and they're a team. I don't think we know, I know they've been terrible the last couple weeks. Talk about the team in a tough division. But they're not getting past the Seahawks and Cardinals. But it just wouldn't shock me. Wait, you have the Rams with the second best record of this division.

I'm just saying they have pieces on their team. They've played great one of three games. What are those pieces? They have good, I think they have a decent front. I think they have. Their front seven has got shredded the past two weeks. By the way, well, we just put them in the grave. The lions, they are 0 and 3 at Seahawks next week.

That's 0 and 4. They also have two more games against the Packers. They'd be lucky to win one of those. So there's really, you do them yourself when you start 0. And three. No team has made the playoffs since 98 when that's happened. So here are some close calls, teams that got either, you know, two or three votes. But it has to be unanimous for us to fork.

Raiders, Jaguars, Texans, Redskins, and I included the Ravens here because none of us nominated them, but they are own three, so they deserve a place on the close call list. Mark, you were defending both the Raiders and Redskins. Your thoughts? Well, the Redskins are in an NFC East that, you know, Romo's out till Week 11. The whole division is Topsy-Turvy, and I think the Redskins legitimately are going to be a better team than we saw last year. No matter what happened against the Giants, I really do think that they're going to be hanging. around until the end. The Raiders, I'll fight for them because they could go three and one beating Chicago this week. I don't think it's a complete flute. The record is not, you know,

just something that's completely made up because I think you've got a quarterback that's playing much better than we expected. You've got a Mari Cooper. You've got a good level of talent on defense. And weird things happen in an AFC where there aren't that many powerhouses. I could see them going right to the end and being kind of frisky. And I don't want to rule them out yet. Let the record show. I went to the mat for the Raiders here. They're a little frisky. Who knows what they're going to be the rest of the year?

And the Redskins, to me, their week two game against the Rams was the most complete game any NFC East team has played this year. I agree, but you guys were just talking about getting bold, and I was thinking, well, what's bolder than forking a team with a winning record? You're not going to have too many chances. I did not. You guys were just bold, let's get bold. Do I think the Raiders have a legitimate chance to make the playoffs?

No. She never make too much one game today. I have no one that suggests. I mean, the Thursday night game was so ugly to me. And I don't even know if the dolphins are any good. They might be a total train wreck, which is another one of their wins. So I don't, yeah, I would have forked them too, but I get it. And Wes, you also, you, I held off on the Texans because I just, the division is still weird.

I don't know what we're going to get from the Colts. I'd forked them now. I've forked them in a heartbeat. They might have the worst quarterback situation than the league. Maybe they might, but they also have JJ Watt and Arient Foster's coming back and it's a bad division. So I'm not quite ready on that. And, Wes, you were in defense of the Jaguars. Well, just because I would, if it's between the Jaguars and the Texans,

to me, easily take the Texans, fork the Texans, because they don't have a quarterback. The Jaguars might have a quarterback. I mean, in reality, we should probably have almost every forkable team done within the next four or five weeks tops. Yeah, we should move. Right? We should know who the, we should be bold enough to not be doing this in week 11.

It's predicting, essentially. saying you know that they have no chance obviously most of the a fc south is going to have a chance until we see that one of the that the colts could possibly pull away which no one is expecting at this point all right so there you go those are the six teams that are done for we will track this closely and i'm sure there's going to be at least one team out of this group that might make us sweat a little bit but it's usually how these things work out but we shall see all right moving on gentlemen to the Thursday night preview, the Ravens, who we just talked about not forked by the around the NFL podcast,

but they are 0 and 3, and now they got to go to Pittsburgh. And this is where maybe you could say fate enters the room for the Ravens, a team that is always in the playoff mix, it seems in the last 15 years. And under normal circumstances, this would have been the death knell 0 and 3 and then go to Pittsburgh in prime time to face Ben Rathlisberger.

However, Ben Rathlisberger has a knee injury. He won't play for several weeks. So Mike Vick enters the picture. Mark, I'll start with you. I know you are very bold or very vocal about your distaste for the Ravens for obvious reasons, knowing the history. But do you think that this is a game where they could round up all the troops and put some life back into their franchise?

I do. And I think they will. The Big Ben injury is unfortunate for Pittsburgh. But for the Ravens, it might be the thing that if they are going to get back into this race, sort of save their season because I think Mike Vic is very vulnerable and can be, you know, gotten to. And the Ravens have plenty of deficiencies, but they got to get back on the board at some point. And so I wouldn't fork them this week because I think they're going to win this game. I think they're quarterback. I mean, Joe Flacco has been playing well. Steve Smith is

playing very well. They haven't been a terrible team. But when you think of the Ravens, you think of playmakers on defense. Who is their playmaker right now on defense? I mean, Jimmy Smith, They thought was going to be good. Jimmy Smith is getting torched by great receivers, but he's getting torched. So if he's not really a number one cornerback, the rest of that secondary is bad. When you have guys like when Lower and Sky is making the most plays from your defense, that's a problem. They don't have anyone that sticks out to you. Can I just say, because Mark, you mentioned the reason why you didn't fork him is because you think they'll win.

I mean, I would think especially we were just talking about the stick of forking them series that we want to be bold this year. We have to all be picking the Ravens this week because they wouldn't come back from 0 and 4, right? Wes? Well, who knows? I mean, I don't know. They're the Ravens. That's the only reason. I don't think anyone's ever come back from before.

I have a harder time writing off a proud team with a winning tradition like the Ravens than I do some of other teams like the Lions where when did the lions ever show backbone. I don't know. To me, that's a harder. Anecdotally, it seems like more than half the games Ben Rathosperger has missed in his career have been against the Ravens. Well, yes. It's not more than half, but it is six. He does not like playing Baltimore. It's six out of 16, which is a huge amount considering it's just one team.

It's crazy. It'll be seven now. I don't have Sesslers very often, but before Michael Vicks signed in August, I did have a Sessler that he would land with a team and lead that team to the playoffs. And there is. I actually went and did a lot of research on older quarterbacks, and there's always a guy. I thought maybe it'd be Ryan Fitzpatrick.

There's always a guy in his mid-30s who leads a team to the playoffs with a bounce-back season coming out of nowhere. And a similar quarterback, remember Randall Cunningham's season with the 98 Vikings? Oh, yeah. Cunningham had been retired. What a story. They pulled him out of retirement. He was a running guy, and he became a better passer with the Vikings.

I don't know. And he's supported by one of the best offensive lines in the league, one of if not the best wide receiver in the league in Antonio Brown, who shows how good Julio Jones is that no one's talking about Antonio Brown. this year. He has been unbelievable. You have Levi-on-Belback. You have all sorts of talent and the defense looks better. It's not great, but it looks better the last

two weeks. Stefan, too, it's playing well. Maybe they get Ryan Chazier back. I mean, it certainly wouldn't be a surprise if Vic can help them win this game. I do like the matchup between Baltimore's passing game, which actually, you know, they lack weapons entirely, but he's put up a ton of yardage

over the past two weeks. And I'm not in love with Pittsburgh's secondary. I mean, this game is not going to be, it doesn't help at all that it's in Pittsburgh but the Ravens like you like you said Dan if we didn't fork them they can't go 0 and 4 right I thought that last week I have to say like I'm going to pick the Ravens again this week but the reason I picked them last week against the bangles because I was like oh well there's no way they'll start oh and three in their own building so now my confidence is shaking about doubling down on this like west said like a proud franchise of the winning

tradition but I'm going to do it because yeah I think they were saved by the football gods with Rothelsberg being out of the picture, I think. I think they're going to take advantage of this. I think philosophically, I never, I always wonder why anybody has great confidence in their weekly picks. Even if I think the Steelers are going to win by 51 to 49%. It's not enough for me to assume that the Ravens are going to go 0 and 4. Yeah, the question to me is, which Michael Vick is it?

Can Todd Haley, and we've already heard some whispers about the things he's cooking up? Watch out. Todd Haley loves throwing wacky stuff out there. He's going to really love it with Michael Vick. I mean, you could, I forget what insider it was, but it was someone that talks to Haley was like, just watch what they've got cooked up for Thursday night. So we'll see. It's which Mike Vic because the Michael Vic in New York couple games was a fine starter and a couple games gave his team absolutely no chance to win.

Right. He was, I mean, I need to be convinced that this guy isn't over the hill because I didn't see it last year. And there's a reason he stayed unemployed for so long because everyone watched the same tape. So now here's the question. You put him with some stud talent like he's got. Now, what does Michael Vick look like? Maybe that's what made Randall Cunningham look so good in 1980. No doubt.

And you never know. And everyone thought that Randall Cunningham was washed up to the point, like I said, that he was retired. Nobody wanted him. All right. Let's go around and make some picks. Mark Sessler, pick and score, please, sir. Ravens 21, 20. Yeah.

Wes. Steelers 27, 24. I will go Ravens 20 to 17. Yeah, I would take the Steelers as well in a high scoring game. game something like 30 27 another another one that they find a way to blow at the end all right so there is our Thursday pick sponsored by nobody what are we going to get sponsored let's get spot i see check is sponsored by McDonald's burger king you out there wendy's where are you Nike give me all the money i want all the money you don't get that money i know NFL gets the money

I feel like the money will trickle down. Nice, try. Just gives us a chance. Hey, Apple, what's up? Anyway, before we go, go get my lunch.org is really our favorite site. The site, listen, there might have to go behind closed doors and hammer out a team of around the NFL like we did today. But there is no debating the best website associated with the around the NFL group besides NFL.com would be go get my lunch. dot org, Nick Fortier, one of our fans.

Where is Nick from, by the way? Do we know? I assume the Bayer with that name, but I didn't. Parts unknown, we're still looking into that. Don't you just think he's on a swamp in the bayou? He has responded to some Panthers things I've written. I believe he's a huge Steve Smith fan. Maybe he's from the South.

Steve's that transcends the universe, though. There's no way to know. It doesn't matter, really. It does matter, but we don't know. Nick, reach out to us. Let us know where you're from. Anyway, his site, Go Get My Lunch.org, has all our sandwich propositions. It has other fun things associated with the show.

And also, just uploaded or added to the site last week, a soundboard. So before we go, the Irishman, Brandon McInnis, if you can share some of the greatest hits off the GoGetmylunch.org soundboard for around the NFL. Let's hear some. This better be a flamethrower that ends broadcast radio. That one's called Flamethrower. How about another one? What is that?

That's Levy Smith's hot butt. That's a solid one. I like that one. What else do we got? I speak Spanish. Yeah. Galeen Wolf dropping some Spanish. Keep rolling.

You're a coward. Uncalled for it. Famously, Andrew called out Marks Brown's situation. Anything else? Well, Marvin Lewis is an idiot. I like that one. We got one for Wes. We got one for Wes.

Everyone can suck it. No, that's not me. That's me. What about one for Wes? It's about me. So check that out. Appropriate. Nick Fortier from Parts Unknown.

Go get my lunch.org. All right. That's it. So what did we, what did we accomplish today? We accomplished a lot. We chose a team. We chose a team of ATL,

the Arizona Cardinals. Congratulations, guys. Proud lineage. Panthers in 2013, the Chargers in 2014, and now the Cardinals in 2015. So what does it mean? If anyone's curious,

what does it all mean? I'm not sure. I guess we just get, we mention it a lot that they're the team of ATL. It's usually how it works out, right? We root them on. Yeah, we root for them. We support them.

We, uh, we do, who knows? Until they inevitably crumble in the post season. Carson Palmer disappears somehow and then some jabroney backup foils them again. What if they went on to win the Super Bowl? Would that be heartening or disheartening? No, it would be unbelievable. It'd be great. That'd be the best possible result.

We go cover the team of 18. Why do you hesitate? I don't know. It almost makes me feel bad. I think that might say something about me. I don't want them to be that successful. You don't want love. No, I don't want everyone to like our person.

Well, there's three and no. It's our special team. I don't want everyone jumping on that bandwagon. But we deserve them the moment. We see something special about them that other people don't see. Chris, you deserve happiness. You deserve love. You deserve something.

That's true. At least a winning football team. A love that deserves the last. Oh. To the home. You guys are too perfect. Home face. I was actually asking for the piano, but it's over now.

Brandon. This isn't going to work, Brandon. Listen, you only got two shows left, so you got to make sure you get the timing right. Remember when I told you that I wanted your shows to be horrible? Maybe I'm just starting a little bit early. Maybe I'm just starting. Brandon's got one more show left, so we're excited to have one more show with the great Irishman. So that's it.

for Tuesday's edition of the Around the NFL podcast. We'll be back Thursday night with our Thursday recap and Friday and all the games on Sunday. Until then, this is Dan Hans is signing off for the quiet storm, the mailman, the boss. Until then. This is an I-heart podcast.